


Oblivious

by slytherxngxrl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dudley has a sister lol, Dumbledore Bashing, Dumbledore is evil, EXTREMELY SLOW/NO UPDATES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, F/M, Grey Harriet, Harriet changes her name, Harry is a girl, I just really hate Ron and Dumbledore, M/M, Magical Dursley's, Marge Dursley is supportive, Molly Weasley kills someone accidentally, NO MOLLY BASHING, Nice Petunia, No Ginny Bashing, ON HOLD TEMPORARILY, Ron is the only Weasley who's not good, STILL UPDATES WHENEVER I HAVE CHAPTERS, Umbridge gets killed by Secret Weapon, Vermin Dursley is a loser, Welcome to the Grey Side We have cookies, good cousin Dudley
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 39,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26811652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherxngxrl/pseuds/slytherxngxrl
Summary: “Avada Kedavra!”, someone shouted from behind Harriet, who barely had the time to turn around and raise a shield in time, only to suddenly remember that you can’t shield the Unforgivables. The curse went right through Harriet’s shield, and the woman in question only got a glimpse of the person’s face before getting hit.ORLord Voldemort gets bested by a 12-year-old muggle-born first year Hufflepuff.ORHarriet gets sent back in time by Death's daughter, who isn't happy with Harriet's decisions.ORThe Wizarding World is about the get pranked by the Girl-Who-Lived.
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy or Cedric Diggory, Basilla Dursley/Fred or George Weasley (not sure yet), Cynthia Peverell/Cedric Diggory or Draco Malfoy, Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley, Harriet Potter/Cedric Diggory or Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Fred or George Weasley (not sure yet), Neville Longbottom/Ginny Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks/Charlie Weasley, Petunia Dursley/someone else, Remus Lupin/Severus Snape, Ronald Weasley/Romilda Vane, Sirius Black/Amelia Bones, Stella Black/someone else
Comments: 141
Kudos: 216





	1. i. jealous much, tom?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet dies and meets her Voldemort.

“Avada Kedavra!”, someone shouted from behind Harriet, who barely had the time to turn around and raise a shield in time, only to suddenly remember that you can’t shield the Unforgivables. The curse went right through Harriet’s shield, and the woman in question only got a glimpse of the person’s face before getting hit.

—

There was no way this just happened. Absolutely no way was Harriet going to believe that. She did not just get killed by a 12-year-old wanna-be Death Eater named Michael Smythe, a muggle-born wizard.

Harriet blinked, and burst into laughter. It was just simply hilarious how the presumed darkest wizard of all times failed to kill her once as a baby and then six times throughout her time at school at the old age of 60-71, while decades later, a mere 12-year-old boy — a Hufflepuff first year at that — managed to get her from behind with the very same curse Lord Voldemort had failed to hit all those times. 

“What the hell are you laughing about?”, Harriet heard a voice from behind, so she turned around. “Harriet Potter?! The Girl-Who-Lived? The one I presumably marked as my equal? The prophecy girl?”

Yes, the person — could you even call him that? — she now stood across from was indeed Tom Marvolo Riddle. 

Harriet smirked. “The very same.”

“But how- you’re dead!”

“I know”, Harriet said with a straight face. “But so are you, so I guess we’re even.”

Tom pulled out his wand and pointed it at her. “AVADA KEDAVRA!” The green light zoomed out of the wand and hit Harriet right in the chest. The woman in question didn’t even flinch. 

“You can’t kill me, Tom. I’m dead. Remember?” She sounded vaguely amused.

“Don’t call me that, or else-“, Tom started, but was cut off by a smirking Harriet. 

“Or else what? You’ll kill me?” The words were mocking him, and Tom knew that. But something was off about Harriet Potter. The girl he fought against in 1998 wasn’t there anymore. Gone was the weak and malnourished girl who was way too small for her age, and in her place stood a proud woman with black hair going down to her waist in smooth waves (after all those years there was finally a potion able to tame the Potter hair) and startling green eyes that looked like the killing curse. Gone was even the red cut in the shape of a lightning bolt, now clearly showing a skin-coloured scar that had almost faded into not even being there anymore. 

“What happened to you? We just fought, and that means I killed you. But- you look different. What happened to Dumbledore’s Golden Girl?” He sneered in the end and Harriet laughed.

“Dumbledore’s Golden Girl? How did you get that idea? Anyway, you may just have duelled me minutes ago, but for me that day was almost 30 years ago. I’m 36 years old.” She smirked again at Tom’s gobsmacked expression.

“You outlived me? Me, the greatest Sorcerer the world has ever seen? How was that possible?!” 

So he didn’t know. All the better, Harriet thought. “Well…”, she started slowly. “Remember Halloween ’81? You hit me with the killing curse, but instead of killing me, you disappeared. You wanna know why?”

Tom nodded curiously. He really wanted to know how a baby had survived his curse. And if that woman knew it, it was better not to waste time ignoring her.

“The prophecy says, ‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies.’ You heard the first part because of your oh-so-faithful Death Muncher, Severus Snape. But you didn’t hear the ‘and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal’ part. And you know, initially the prophecy didn’t even refer to me.”

“What do you mean, you weren’t initially the prophecy child? Aren’t you born to those who have thrice defied me, born as the seventh month dies?”

“Oh yes, but that doesn’t mean anything. Because the next line says will mark him as his equal, clearly referring to a boy. But since you decided that I was the prophecy child, you marked me as your equal instead of Neville.”

“I marked you? How does the scar mark you as my equal?” Tom’s eyes narrowed dangerously, but since they were both already dead, Harriet didn’t move. 

“You don’t really think a baby — or anyone for that matter — could survive the killing curse?” Harriet laughed. “It wasn’t really the killing curse that hit me, but more like a piece of your soul.”

Tom’s eyes widened as realisation set in. “No…”, he whispered.

Harriet nodded, still smirking. “Yes. You made me a horcrux that night. And since you already had five of them, you’d wanted to use my death for the sixth. Your soul, however, was so damaged already that it took my mum’s death to make me a horcrux instead. Know what it made possible? The visions during my fourth and fifth year. And it was also how I found out about the diadem.”

Tom shook his head. That couldn’t be possible. “And the others?”

Harriet lifted an eyebrow. “Well, the diary was destroyed in my second year, completely ‘by accident’. I didn’t know what it was, just that it was evil, so I stabbed it with a Basilisk Fang. The ring you can thank Dumbledore for. He died because of that weird curse that spread all around his hand. In the end, Snape killed him, but still. Then there was the locket…hm, when I went to the cave with Dumbledore, we found the locket, but it was fake.”

“Fake?”

“Remember Regulus Black?”  
The next five minutes were spent waiting for Tom’s colourful words for Regulus to cease.

“Anyway, we got the locket after Ron, Hermione and I found a note inside the fake locket and figured out who R.A.B. was. We asked Kreacher about it, but unfortunately Mundungus Fletcher stole it and just gave it away to Dolores Umbridge.” Harriet scowled. “Do you know how hard it was to break into the Ministry of Magic, just to get that stupid locket? As I was saying, that’s how we got the locket. Your precious little cup didn’t really escape destruction by sitting in Bellatrix’s vault, Tom. We broke into Gringotts — successfully, might I add — and stole that stupid cup. Ah, and then there’s the diadem, which I found out by asking the Grey Lady at Hogwarts. And Nagini I kind of…well, I don’t even know how I figured that one out, but I guess I just put two and two together after noticing that I could see through her eyes. Neville expertly destroyed that one for me. As for myself.” Harriet sighed almost wistfully. “You destroyed your own horcrux. You yourself made it possible for me to kill you.”

“So that’s how you got back, then. But wait! Narcissa said you were dead.”

Harriet smiled wickedly. “She lied.”

Another five minutes were wasted by colourful vocabulary. 

“What else do you want to know?”

“How did you die, if not by my own hands?”, Tom hissed through clenched teeth.

Here, Harriet almost laughed out loud again, but pulled herself together, if only for the expression she expected to see.

“That’s why I laughed earlier. I laughed at the ridiculousness of the fact that you — Dark Lord extraordinaire — couldn’t kill me seven times, but a 12-year-old Hufflepuff wanna-be Death Eater hit me right in the chest because I was careless. He’s younger than youngest child, but he managed to kill me. He was a Hufflepuff. And you know what?” Harriet smirked. “He was a — how would you put it? — filthy little mud-blood.”

Tom’s blood ran cold. He couldn’t believe what he was told. A filthy little mud-blood — from Hufflepuff, too — besting HIM, Lord Voldemort, in killing Harriet Potter! As wrong as that sounded, he couldn’t deny it. He might hate the woman in front of him, but lying to him — no, that wasn’t something he’d experienced from her. But still…

“You said he was 12 years old?! A — what, second year-“

“First year, actually. Kind of sad on my part, too. I was just discussing the dangers of the Unforgivable’s in my Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw DADA class, writing that stuff on the board, when I suddenly heard a curse coming from behind. I forgot for a second that you can’t block again an Unforgivable, so I guess it just hit me.” Harriet shrugged. 

Tom was still scowling at her, so she decided to make the situation a little more entertaining. Lifting a perfect eyebrow, she quirked her lips up and asked, “What is this? Lord Voldemort, jealous of a first year Hufflepuff with muggle heritage?” She shook her head.

Tom’s face shook with rage, but couldn’t interrupt, because someone else did it for him.

“That is quite enough!”, said a voice Harriet didn’t recognise.

She turned around and furrowed her brows in confusion. “Who are you?”


	2. ii. isn't time travel illegal or something?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet meets Death's daughter, who's very annoyed with the Woman-Who-Won.

She turned around and furrowed her brows in confusion. “Who are you?”

The woman standing in front of her wore a white dress that made her look like she was floating while walking. Her hair was black, completely straight, and reached to her shoulders, and her eyes were a deep ice blue. That woman was literally the definition of beautiful.

“I? Why I am Línnea. But you may know me under the name ‘Death’”, the woman said.

“Death? But I thought you were male”, was Harriet’s protest.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear. And that brings us to other things…” Línnea sighed. “You were so naïve, and you still are. I can’t blame you of course, but still.”

“What do you mean?”

“You mean besides the fact that Dumbledore was just an egoist getting away with law-breaking just because he’s Albus Dumbledore, Ronald Weasley fed you love potions and cheated on you more than once, and his mother had all that planned from the day your parents died.”

“Sorry, Línnea, but I just can’t believe that. I mean, Dumbledore was a great man. Sure, he made mistakes, but he had his reasons and apologised appropriately. As for Ron, he’s my husband, we’ve known each other for 25 years now. Why would he feed me a love potion? And Molly? What would she have to say in her son’s love life? They’re my family!”

“See? You’re so naïve you don’t even notice it when you’re told.” Línnea sighed. “Guess I’ve got to go over every little thing they did until she understands…”, she muttered under her breath before looking at Harriet again.

“Really, Harriet. You’re 36 years old, yet you can’t even tell when your husband of 18 years cheats on you. Let me give you some names…Lavender Brown, Pansy Parkinson, Cho Chang, Hermione Granger — though she was actually raped by him —, and a few others I’m not going to name right now.”

Harriet was now looking like a gaping fish. Lavender Brown? Ok, she was already used by him to make Hermione jealous. Pansy Parkinson? Hadn’t Ron always been so brattish about Slytherins? And Cho…figures. What a bitch. Cheating on Cedric with Roger Davies…but Hermione? Raped? Why the hell would Ron rape his best friend? And besides, Hermione was happily married to Viktor Krum. And she lives in Bulgaria, so how would Ron even get to her?

“And then there’s Dumbledore. Now, with what he did — according to Ministry law and Hogwarts rules — he should already have been sentenced to life in Azkaban even before your parents died. And before your first year he would have gotten the Dementor’s Kiss.”

Harriet’s eyes widened. She couldn’t mean that. What could Dumbledore possibly have done that would make him deserve-

“How?”, she whispered. “What has he done? And why?”

Línnea looked apologetic as she started to speak. “Let’s start in the beginning.

“First, while for a good cause, the Whomping Willow is a very illegal plant. You may not know it, but simply for selling the seeds for that tree you could get a sentence in Azkaban. Not to mention that it has actually killed and maimed students already.”

Harriet paled. “What? I know that kids played around it to find out who could get nearer to it, but I only got told that one child nearly lost an eye, but nothing else.”

Línnea nodded sympathetically. “I know. One first year muggle-born named Rose Evans got killed because she didn’t know that it wasn’t a normal tree and just tried to walk past it, while another first year pure-blood named Elizabeth Potter lost an arm, broke her skull and fell into a coma. And that was only two days into September. The tree had only been standing for two weeks at that time.”

Harriet paled further. She couldn’t believe that her parents had other siblings. No one had ever told her about them. But she supposed Dumbledore would have had to tell her where they were and stuff like that, but since that man liked to keep secrets, the case was clear.

“Second, don’t you think that your parents could easily have hidden in Potter Manor or something, instead of in an old cottage with nothing more than a Fidelius?”

As Harriet began contemplating that, she realised that everything Línnea said was the truth. Well, she didn’t know about the first point, but apart from that…why should she lie? She was Death, and Harriet was dead, so what reason was there to lie to her?

“The wards around Potter Manor are so complicated, the counter-spells for them are only available in the Potter Family Grimoire. Thus, no one but Potter Family members are able to retrieve the spells for raising or lowering the wards. You must know, the Potter’s are widely known for their ability in Arithmancy. You know, spell-crafting and such. But Warding is also a strong topic within your family. It is just too unfortunate that your grandparents died too soon to teach your father.”

“Wait, what happened to them?”, Harriet asked.

“They were attacked in their home.”

“But didn’t you just say that no non-member of the Potter family could lower the wards?”

“Yes, but…” Línnea trailed off as her eyes widened. “That means a Potter must have been one of the attackers.”

Harriet smirked smugly. “And you didn’t know?”

Línnea glared at her. “I apologise, but I’m not all-knowing!”

“But you are Death. And therefore, you should know everything about people’s deaths, shouldn’t you? I mean, how else would you have known that a small first year managed to kill me?”

“My father was in charge until he died two years ago, so I couldn’t have known that. Besides-“

“Did you just say that your father died? You can actually die in the Realm of Death? I assume that before you were in charge, that your father was Death, so Death can actually die?”

Línnea rolled her eyes. “Look. That’s a long story, but can we just please get back to the actual point of this meeting?”

Harriet rolled her eyes right back at the other woman, but nodded.

“Good. Now, where was I?”

“I believe the last thing you mentioned was that the wards at Potter Manor were far safer than the cottage in Godric’s Hollow.”

“Thank you. Now, onto our third point. The Prophecy. I know for a fact that you know about Snape telling Voldysnort about it?”

“Yes, but…Voldysnort?”

“Come on! I mean, people snort through their nose, right? Well, the thing is, Voldemort does not-“

“-have a nose. Ok, ok, I get it. Continue, ‘Nea.”

“‘Nea?”

“Línnea is too long.”

“Ah, that explains it”, Línnea said with just a bit of sarcasm in her voice. “Anyway, job interviews are usually held in the Headmaster’s office, right?”

Harriet nodded. She knew that because her job interview for the DADA post was held in the Headmistress’ office, and from a memory she knew that Trelawney’s was, too.

“And you know how Dumbledore always seemed to know that someone was at the door before they had the chance to knock?”

Harriet nodded again, not knowing where this was going. 

“When Trelawney started speaking that prophecy, what makes you think Dumbledore didn’t know that Snape was right outside the door?”

Harriet furrowed her brows in thought. She definitely knew where Línnea was coming from. Dumbledore did mention something about him trusting Snape with his life once. Or twice. Maybe even once each year. Or every time they talked? Let’s just stick with the fact that he had to tell that to people quite a lot. Now, what does that say about Snape, if all Dumbledore did was try to convince people of Snape’s loyalties?

“I see you know what I mean, which is good. Because the next point is the night your parents died. What do you know about that? Maybe you can figure it out yourself what was wrong then.”

“Well, I know that Hagrid took me from the house and brought me to Privet Drive, where Minerva and Dumbledore were already waiting. Dumbledore talked about how my parents were dead and — against Minerva’s word — lay me in my relatives’ doorstep…” Harriet trailed off. “In the middle of the night, at the beginning of November, when in the muggle telly rain was foretold. With nothing more than a jumper and a blanket. And a letter to explain everything to Aunt Petunia…but…why? Why would he do that?”

“That I can not tell you. Maybe he didn’t want to hear your aunt reject you in his face, maybe he just knew what was going to happen, but didn’t want to hear it, likely we will never know. But that is besides the point right now. How did Dumbledore know about you parents’ death? And how could he possibly tell that you were still alive? Last time I checked you were 15 months old when he tried to kill you. Not even old enough to raise your hand to say ‘Protego’. Not that that would have worked anyway.”

Harriet shrugged. “And what about your parents’ wills?”, Línnea continued.

“They had wills?”, Harriet asked, surprised. Línnea looked shocked.

“You mean that old coot didn’t even tell you that? No one did? Ok, well, I guess I understand Dumbledore. He never tells anyone anything. But the others should have mentioned something.”

“Why? What more was there than Mum and Dad giving money and other stuff to their friends and me?”

“Maybe the fact that…oh, I don’t know…Dumbledore witnessed the writing of the will? Or the fact that Voldemort cast the Fidelius Charm to make Pettigrew the Secret Keeper? Or the fact that there were seven people that could have taken care of you, first of all Sirius and Alice Longbottom as your godparents. And not to mention the fact that it was expressed that under no circumstances should our daughter be raised by Petunia Dursley née Evans and her husband.”

“And Dumbledore knew?”

“He knew. And the blood wards. Did you know that Petunia isn’t even your biological aunt?”

Harriet was shocked. “What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is that your aunt was adopted because your grandparents thought they couldn’t have a baby. So they adopted Petunia. But two years later and they got twins, Rose and Lily.”

By now, Harriet was shaking with rage. “Did he know? Did Dumbledore know about Petunia not being related to me?”

Harriet hoped not, but unfortunately, Línnea nodded sadly. 

“I will kill him!”, Harriet said through clenched teeth and only now seemed to remember that Dumbledore was already dead.

“And you will get the chance.” Harriet looked at her companion in surprise, curiosity and shock. “You will, trust me. Or didn’t you save a hippogriff’s life and your godfather’s soul?”

“But that was just because-“ Harriet stopped, registering what she was saying. “-because of Hermione’s time turner. Do you mean to tell me…”

Línnea nodded. “Yes. I mean to tell you that you have the chance to go back in time to change everything.”

“But isn’t Time Travel illegal or something? Or did I miss something important?”

“Actually yes, you did. While Time Travel should be illegal, you can’t be punished for it.”

“Why not? You just said it was illegal.”

“Yes, but I didn’t say that people knew about you being a time traveller. And besides, what can they do? In the time where you died, they can’t punish you because technically you are dead. And in the past they can’t because you technically didn’t at that time use Time Travel. And besides, it is only illegal so long as you use a time turner.” Línnea winked cheekily.

“Do you mean because the others are just safe enough to use, or because nobody knows of another method to do it?”

“The latter.”

“Explain”, Harriet demanded. “And besides, what was that about Ron and Molly again?”

“Alright, alright. I am Death, I can do what I want. So I am going to send you back in time. More precisely, into your six-year-old body. You could still change enough that the abuse won’t affect your magic, and you can go to Gringotts to let your blocks be removed.”

“What blocks? And can the goblins remove the horcrux, too?”

“You didn’t know about the blocks? Merlin, you are oblivious to everything. Let the goblins explain. And yes, they can. But since I doubt the goblins would believe a six-year-old girl saying they have a horcrux in their head — even if it’s Harriet Potter — you’d have to tell them about your time travel.”

“I can do that.” Harriet nodded.

“Alright. And then you could take an Inheritance Test, so you can actually see how man vaults you have and from what blood lines you come from.”

“Al…right”, Harriet said slowly. She could see where this was going. Suddenly, her face brightened up. “Could I change my name?”

“What?”

“You know, say I came from the lines…what, Gryffindor and Malfoy. I don’t know. Could I for example say I wanted to be Harriet Malfoy or Gryffindor instead of Potter? Or even a different first name?”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Because I’m done being Harriet Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived. I could just somehow make Harriet Potter go missing, while my new identity would be controlling.”

Línnea was still sceptical. “And what, pray tell, would you do about a living? A six-year-old can’t very well just buy a house or rent a flat.”

“Maybe not, but I recall you mentioning something about Potter Manor?” She raised an eyebrow at Línnea’s dumbstruck look. 

“Ok, are we done now? No, we aren’t. Far from done, actually…”

“How much has that bastard done? And could you please just tell me about Ron and Molly?”

“First, he’s done far too much. And second, I’ll tell you when we come to about sixth year or something. Now, shut up and listen. No interrupting until I ask for questions. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.”


	3. iii. what do you mean, now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet is speechless. But it gets worse.

“Crystal.”

Línnea clapped her hands together. “Wonderful!”, she exclaimed mock-happily and with a really huge fake-grin. 

“Ok, let’s get to Mrs. Figg. What do you know about her?”

“Well, she’s a squib who lives near where the Dursley’s live. And she’s in the Order”, Harriet shrugged.

Línnea raised an eyebrow. “That’s all? So you don’t know that she was actually positioned to keep watch over you and report to Dumbledore?”

“What? Until I was 15 I just thought she was the crazy old cat lady that lived in the neigbourhood. After that, squib was added, but that’s it. It’s what everyone in the neighbourhood thought. And she babysat me when I was little.” She scrunched up her nose. “Made me look at all the pictures of her ugly cats. Wait. Does that mean, Dumbledore knew about my situation?”

“I’m afraid so. You’d have to be brainless not to notice such an obvious case of abuse, so I reckon Mrs. Figg told Dumbledore all about it at first, but was told not to do anything. Anyway, you may not know it, but Petunia isn’t as cruel as you think she is.”

“Wait, what? Línnea, that woman called me a freak half my life, made me do the household since I could walk, and never batted an eye when Dudley and Vernon beat me up!”

“Yes, but think about it. Has Petunia ever hit you?”

Harriet thought about it. “No…”

“Thought so. Anyway, she may not be related to Lily, or be very fond of the idea of magic, but did you know why this was? Why Petunia became such a bitter woman?” Harriet shook her head. “Because she asked Dumbledore if she could come to Hogwarts too. He denied, and since then she’s hated Lily.”

“Ok, fine. But what does that have to do with anything? Wouldn’t that be the perfect reason to hate me? She hates her adoptive sister, hates magic, and hates me, who is connected to both of it.”

“Maybe, but if you had a sister who could go to a school you weren’t accepted in because she could do something you couldn’t, and thus hated her since you were 13 years old, making her life miserable with insults and the like, would you still hate her child so much that you’d hit and basically enslave her in your home, just because your sister died and left you her child?”

“No!”, Harriet almost shouted. She had experienced what it was like, she didn’t want to be like that.

“See? And I just told you that Dumbledore rejected her request to study magic. If you were Headmistress, would you have accepted or rejected her?”

Harriet thought about it. On the one hand, the Slytherins might give her trouble for being a muggle, but on the other hand, if she was in charge of Hogwarts, a lot of things would be different. And besides, muggles could learn stuff like Arithmancy, Herbology, Potions, and other stuff that doesn’t require a wand. She could also learn the theory in the subjects that do require the ability to do magic. Any muggle could excel in magic school without having magic. She told Línnea so.

“Now, if that’s the case, then why did Dumbledore reject her? Did he just fear for the Slytherins hurting her? Couldn’t be, because he could do something about it. Or did he fear about the general opinion of the public? Who the hell cares about that? He may not hate muggles and muggle-borns, but if I am right, he does think that people without magic are worth less than magicals.”

“Really?”

“I’m sure. Did you know that Dumbledore was in a relationship with Gellert Grindelwald and only left because his sister died in a duel between them and his brother Aberforth? They never knew which curse killed her.”

“But- but that’s unbelievable! Why would he be in a relationship with Grindelwald if he didn’t support those views?” Harriet’s face cleared up. “You don’t mean…”

“I mean exactly that. Dumbledore has had those views when he was young, and there is no way they completely vanished. He’s been taught about muggles and magic since he was born, you’d think he’d made up his mind at a young age. He didn’t have those views because he didn’t understand muggles, but simply because he thought himself above them. He may not think they needed to be killed, but sure didn’t do anything about his ex-lover killing them for fun. It was all just about the ‘Greater Good’. If you asked, he’d probably say something along the lines of ‘Grindelwald is defeated. Sacrifices must be made. If we tried to save every single person caught in the crossfire, Grindelwald may still be lurking around.’”

Harriet was taken aback. She had always thought of Dumbledore as some kind of saviour. Sure, most people thought of her as one, too, but that was different. Dumbledore had a long list of things he’d done, and a few titles to prove his fame. He’s supposedly the perfect example for the Light wizard. But if that was what comes from it; him making out with a Dark Lord and maybe even killing his sister. And then putting an orphan into an abusive home. But then Harriet thought of those memories she saw about Tom Riddle. He was an orphan with no friends, hated or feared by everyone because of his ability to talk to snakes. And then along came Dumbledore, telling him about that great new world with magic. It was so much like her own life. Tom too was sent back to where he was hated every single year, no matter how much he protested. Tom was a Slytherin, and Harriet had almost been one; she then decided to not let her views influence the Sorting Hat’s decision. If it wanted her in Gryffindor, fine. If she’d be a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or even a Slytherin, so be it. 

Tom and Harriet also were both half-bloods and came from a long line of pure-bloods. Really the only obvious difference between them is their gender and views. And now that Harriet thought about it, if it had all went just a little different, if Ron hadn’t told her about Slytherin being the sign of all evil, if Malfoy hadn’t been such a prat, if she’d seen through Dumbledore’s game from the very beginning, if she’d actively defended himself from the Dursley’s and all the other children, she just might have gone dark and miserable, hating all that is associated with her pain; namely muggles and Light Magical people.

“I just remembered something about Tom. He and I, we are so similar, if things went only slightly different, if Dumbledore had made just one more wrong thing, I might have gone dark. I might have been the next Dark Lady.”

“Exactly! And this is why I don’t even want to know what Dumbledore thought when he put you with them. And-“ She frowned. “What if you found out about all the bad things he did to you?”

At that moment, a memory struck Harriet. 

—

“How could you do this to me, Dumbledore?! You knew all those years what they did to me, and you did nothing! You say you have my best interests in heart, yet you don’t even make an effort in trying to get Sirius freed! Your hands aren’t tied, Dumbledore! You’re Headmaster of Hogwarts, Supreme Mugwump and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot! If you can’t do something about it, no one can!”

Dumbledore shook his head at Harriet’s outburst. That was so not what he imagined her third year to end. “I am so sorry for what I am about to do, Harriet.”

Then, he lifted his wand to point it at Harriet, whose eyes had widened at the stick pointing in her face. “Obliviate.”

—

“I-“ Harriet took a deep breath. “I actually did find out about it. In third year, I found out that he knew about my treatment with the Dursley’s, and I got mad because he lied about not being able to free Sirius. He- he obliviated me.”

Línnea promptly stood up, muttering insults to Dumbledore that Harriet couldn’t quite catch.

“So, is there something else about my childhood, or can we get started on first year?” Línnea didn’t hear it. “‘Nea? Línnea? LÍNNEA!”

Línnea snapped out of her daze and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry…”, she muttered. “What was that again?”

“I said, ‘Is there something else about my childhood, or can we get started on first year?’”

Línnea smiled grimly and nodded. Taking a deep breath, she looked at Harriet and said, “Let’s get this over with.

“So, first year…I guess we need to go a bit earlier. Your Hogwarts letter.”

“What about it?”

“Didn’t I tell you not to interrupt?”, Línnea asked. 

“Ok, ok, sorry.”

“Thank you. Anyway, muggle-borns get a Hogwarts letter and a Hogwarts representative to explain it. Yes, you may not be a muggle-born, and grew up with muggles, but still. Dumbledore knew you didn’t get your letter, but instead of looking into it, he just sent double the amount of letters. Of course it’s going to upset the Dursley’s to have hundreds of letters in their home on a Sunday. 

“And then, Hagrid? I like Hagrid, I really do, but would you send a half-giant unable to keep secrets or do magic to an 11-year-old child to explain the magical world? His loyalty is outstanding. And he didn’t even tell you where to go for Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters! I bet that was Dumbledore’s and Molly Weasley’s doing!”

“Molly?”

Línnea rolled her eyes annoyed. “Who in their right mind yells about a fractioned platform number and muggles around hundreds of muggles? And you went to them and asked how to go there.”

“So, you’re saying that they planned for me to hear them and ask them how to get onto the platform? But why?”

Línnea shrugged. “So you’d make friends with Ronald.”

“That again? Can’t you just give it a rest? He’s my husband. I-“ Harriet stopped. Did she really love Ron? She was dead, her body didn’t really function anymore in the real world, she was free from any outside influence, potions and spells. As she saw from Tom, spells couldn’t affect her. So why did she doubt her love for Ron now? Línnea said something about love potions, but would he really? Harriet didn’t feel the usual warmth or tingling feeling or electric shock while thinking of him, so what does it tell her?

“-love him?”, Línnea inquired, quirking her lip into what looked like a smirk. She knew what Harriet was going to say and why she stopped.

Harriet sighed. “No…I guess you’re right about that love potion. But what does that have to do with Molly?” She thought about it, unconsciously going into the following years, slowly getting where Línnea was coming from. All those adventures, and Molly always there to comfort her, and Ron’s jealousy, and when Hermione was accused of playing with her heart, the dirty looks they were getting for supposedly being lesbian. The challenges in first year. If they could get around them, why not Voldemort? In second year. If Hermione could figure it out, why not Dumbledore? In third year. Dumbledore didn’t want to free Sirius, so why would Fudge? Fourth year. If Harriet knew something was going on with Moody, why not Dumbledore? In fifth year. Why would he want Snape to give her Occlumency lessons? And why did Dumbledore only come to help them when Sirius was already dead? In sixth year. Why would he want Snape as DADA professor. And why wouldn’t he go to that cave alone? She was 16, for Merlin’s Sake! Far too young to be doing that. Maybe, if Sirius didn’t die, she wouldn’t know the prophecy now. Seventh year. They had so few informations. And then Ron suddenly left, again accusing her and Hermione to be lesbians and running off in a fit of jealously again. 

It all suddenly made sense. But the love potions, Harriet still had no idea what that was about, so she asked Línnea. 

“Honestly, do you really believe Ronald could brew a love potion without any outside help?”

Harriet snorted at the thought. 

“See? And why wouldn’t she want you to marry her son? I mean, they don’t have much money. You, on the other hand, are so rich, if you died, all that money would go to them. And then, they could be the ones to brag about having the Girl-Who-Lived as their wife, daughter or sister-in-law. How could you not realise?”

“Ok, fine. It does make sense. But did the others know? Or was it only between Molly and Ron? And, does that mean that Ron was really only hanging out with me for my fame? Does he even love me?”

Línnea sighed. “No. The others didn’t know. It was solely between those two. And yes, Ron only cared for your fame. Didn’t you realise when he accused you of bragging about that fame in front of him, just to make him feel bad every time you wanted to give him anything?”

Harriet nodded. Línnea started talking again. “Should we continue on with first year?”

Harriet shook her head. “No. I understand. I get it now. All those adventures we got up to. They were planned. Because if we could do it, why couldn’t the adults do it? It was all planned, all along. And Dumbledore wanted me weak and trusting towards the person ‘saving’ me from the Dursley’s. But he didn’t want me living with Sirius or something, so he just didn’t free him and didn’t do anything until he was dead. The year after, I was only good for watching memories and getting the one from Slughorn. It was nothing but a game! A test, so to speak! No preparations, just test me every year and when Voldemort turns up, test me again! Something else, Línnea?”

Línnea thought about everything. She then shook her head. “No. Only that you have to remember what we just talked about. Don’t tell Dumbledore or any of his lackeys about what I just told you. That you went in time should either be held completely secret or be confidential to only select few people. And since you’re planning on getting a new identity, what better method to do?”

“I guess you’re right. So, we’re done?”

“Yep!”, Línnea said, popping the ‘p’. “I think you can go now.” 

“What? Now? Like, now now?”

“Good luck, Harriet!”

“Wait! Línnea!”

But Línnea disappeared. As did everything else around Harriet, as it got dark and Harriet fell unconscious.


	4. iv. i'm back, now what?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet's back in time, but are things really as they're supposed to be?

But Línnea disappeared. As did everything else around Harriet, as it got dark and Harriet fell unconscious.

When Harriet woke up the next morning it was — to her surprise — not due to the shouting from Petunia Dursley. She sat up in the cot that was in the cupboard under the stairs and looked around. The toy soldiers she’d nicked from Dudley weren’t there yet, so from that she knew that it was before she turned seven. And then she saw that box that had been under the cot until she was six. She had decided to open it at the wrong time and Petunia had caught her doing it, so it went up to the attic, where Harriet was never permitted to go.

But it was there now, so she was still five, or it was her sixth birthday right now. She wondered what to do now that she was back. Of course she could open the box right now, but he didn’t know when the Dursley’s would wake, so didn’t want to take any chances. And besides, wish magic only got you so far, so that was gone too. Though now that she thought about it, she remembered herself practicing windless magic countless times. A sigh escaped her lips when she remembered herself telling Dumbledore about her achievement and getting obliviated. Hm…now that she was back in time and since after her death unaffected by any spells or potions, she could try to use wandless magic. 

Thinking the words ‘Colloportus’ and ‘Muffliato’, she waved her tiny hand and wondered why her magic responded so easily. Sure, she was pretty good at it when she was 15, but that was another matter altogether. Even then her magic didn’t respond that well, and her body was currently five or six years old. To clear up the obvious confusion, she cast a Tempus charm and got that it was indeed her sixth birthday. A perfect birthday present would be to find out what was in that box. 

Turns out it was quite useful indeed. In the box was one letter, written by Albus Dumbledore. She growled at his name, so first decided to read that to get it over with.

—

Dear Mrs. Dursley,

It is in my deepest regrets to inform you of your late sister and brother-in-law’s death. A dark wizard, who called himself Voldemort, hunted them down and killed them. The only surviving member is their daughter Harriet. 

But since all the people she was to go to are unable to care for her, you will be required to do so. I do not ask you to love her, but to simply give her an upbringing free of any spoiling and magic.

You will all be very safe as long as you stay in the house you are currently in. It is warded by a charm powered by the late Lily Potter. She jumped in front of her daughter, even though it meant dying. That made a strong shield go up, which will stay in power as long as Harriet stays with you or decides that your house is no longer her home. Then, the wards will fail and you won’t be save anymore.

Again, I do not ask you to love Harriet Jamila Potter, but simply to care for her.

My sincerest condolences, 

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

—-

Harriet growled. Of course Dumbledore would write it like this. Make them think they have no other choice than to take her in. Of course they’d hate her for having magic and taking space away they didn’t even want to give up in the first place. They didn’t even get to decline, since no one turned up to speak with them personally, but simply let a one-year-old baby girl freeze herself half to death in the middle of a cold November night full of rain. If she’d only been able to read that letter when she had the chance before. Damn Petunia! Because of her, Harriet couldn’t read the letters in her old timeline. However, that was going to change, simply because she now knew the contents of this letter.

But that wasn’t all, Harriet found. In the box were many notes on random topics. Be it essay drafts for Potions, or love letters, everything was inside it. Even the research about the Marauders Map and Animagi. On the bottom were also documents on Harriet’s birth in both the muggle and the wizarding world. But that was basically all.

Harriet smiled. Ok, now she knew about Dumbledore’s letter — the smile slipped slightly — and had plenty of notes written by her parents and the other Marauders throughout their school years. If that isn’t a jackpot for her sixth birthday, then nothing would be. Harriet only just managed to stuff the box back under the cot, when she heard the locks of the cupboard click, so she removed the charms as to not be blamed for her aunt being unable to open the cupboard under the stairs. 

“Go and make breakfast, Freak! And make sure you don’t burn anything!”, Petunia snarled from the cupboard door. Harriet mentally rubbed her hands together. Let the games begin.

“Ok, Aunt Petunia!”, Harriet smiled. “I’ll make sure to finish as fast as I can. Should I make pancakes for Dudley and Uncle Vernon, too? Or only eggs and bacon?” You could practically see the confusion and fear displaying in Petunia’s face. Harriet had only ever said, ‘Ok, Aunt Petunia’ and stepped out of the cupboard to fill the demands. But never had she asked to do more than necessary. 

“Um…y-you should make pancakes for Dudley and Vernon. I’m sure they’d like it. And, uh, set up a plate and some cutlery for you on the table, too. And now hurry up, Girl”, Petunia stuttered at first, but became steadier as she continued. But something was different, Petunia just knew it. But what, she couldn’t put her finger on. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She’d just continue on with the day as every other one too, and maybe it’ll come to her in the afternoon. 

Harriet meanwhile frowned. Was it really that easy to get food? Just be nice and ask to do more than you’re expected to do, and you get your own place with plate and all at the breakfast table? With bacon, eggs and pancakes? What a wonderful birthday that would be, she concluded as she started to prepare breakfast. It was hard with her small hands and tiny body, but on the other hand it was easier, because she had more practice in cooking than she’d had the first time around. 

Suddenly, as she was setting the table while the pancakes sizzled in one and the eggs and bacon in the other, she heard something from the hall.

“So, Pet, did you put the Freak in its place?”, she heard Vernon ask. Vernon had an awful habit of referring to her as a thing. 

“Y-yes, V-v-vernon. She’s in the k-kitchen preparing breakfast.”

SLAP!

Petunia whimpered and Harriet nearly dropped the plate she’d been holding. 

“What did I tell you about referring to the Freak as a human being? It’s a thing, not a human!”

Harriet pretended not to hear anything, but really she listened in on the odd conversation.

“B-but why? She’s just a little girl! And it’s her birthday! Why not make it at least a little bit more bearable?”

Harriet could almost hear the sneer on Vernon’s face as he said, “All the more reason to discipline the beast more! Not that it gets ideas and demands presents that are meant for our Dudley.” He shook his head. 

Harriet suddenly desperately tried to think of something else than being referred to as a beast. That madder realise something. When she met Tom after she died, she asked him what gave him the idea that she was Dumbledore’s Golden Girl. But a few minutes later, she was ranting to Línnea about how wonderful he was. She really had to find out what that was about. 

“If you are even a tad nice to that thing, you know what’ll happen!”

Harriet peeked around the corner into the hallway and saw Vernon’s hand raised and Petunia flinching back, tears on her face. She nodded violently.

“Y-yes, Vernon. I-I will discipline he- it.”

That was all Harriet needed to hear. She couldn’t believe it. All this time, and Petunia had wanted to help her? She was careful not to drop any hints that she knew about the fight, and finished setting the table before going back to the stove and finishing breakfast.

“You’re still not finished making breakfast? Hurry up, Girl!”, Petunia screeched, and this time you could hear the apology in her voice. Harriet wondered why she’d never noticed it before, or in her old life.

“Yes, Aunt Petunia. I’m almost finished. Look, it’ll only take about a minute”, she said, smiling up at her aunt to the best of her ability. She got a curt nod in return. 

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Well, Petunia was quiet while listening to Dudley ranting about the presents he wants and Vernon ranting about his colleagues, Harriet, motorbikes, Harriet, teenagers and Harriet. Harriet sat at the table, swinging her feet under the table and eating the food she cooked. She only took some egg and bacon, and though she really wanted pancakes, she couldn’t afford making her uncle and cousin mad at her on her birthday. Or, well, they’re always mad at her, they couldn’t be any different on birthdays. Only on Dudley’s birthday would it be calmer, since they didn’t want to make Dudley cry because of the loud noises, or spoiling his birthday. Rather ignore the freak instead of yelling at it.

After breakfast, Harriet started washing the dishes and putting them away when she heard someone clear their throat. Vernon was at work and Dudley at school (they kept Harriet at home for housework as often as they can find logical excuses for the school), so it had to be Petunia. 

“Yes?”, Harriet asked after turning around to face Petunia.

“Happy birthday, Harriet.” Her voice was shaky, but that was to be expected. Vernon had only left five minutes ago and he could always have forgotten to take something. 

Harriet again nearly dropped the plate she was holding and smiled. “Thank you, Aunt Petunia.” Then her face got serious. “Why did Uncle Vernon slap you earlier? And why did you cry?” 

Harriet almost expected an angry retort or a stuttered excuse and more orders, but what she certainly didn’t expect was a full apology and explanation.


	5. v. i get it, but why?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Petunia breaks down and explains her actions.

Harriet almost expected an angry retort or a stuttered excuse and more orders, but what she certainly didn’t expect was a full apology and explanation.

“I’m so sorry!”, she cried. “I never wanted to hurt you, but Dumbledore’s letter said we should! You would have to die anyway and it would be better for you not to get attached to anyone. But I wanted you to enjoy your life, until Vernon once caught me giving you one of Dudley’s toys. And Dudley — really, why did I agree on naming him that? — I didn’t even want to name him that, but Vernon insisted. He said he’d kill me and Dudley if I were ever deliberately nice to you! And that he’d write that Dumbledore fellow that I wasn’t following his orders! In truth, I never even hated your mother. It’s just- the letter from Dumbledore made me feel so angry every time I saw you. The things you said today- they kind of cleared my mind. I know that doesn’t excuse anything, but I can’t change it! Again, I’m so sorry, Harriet! For everything! And if we’re on that topic already, I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

“Ok, ok, I get it. I even already knew about the letter because I’ve read it myself. But why would Uncle Vernon want to kill his wife and only son for being nice to a child?”

“Vernon had a letter, too. I’ve never seen it, but he told me that you’d have to die and we should make sure that you were mistreated. He even mentioned something about us getting a monthly allowance for your stuff. But we didn’t get you anything — I was tempted to at least three times a day — and instead had you wear your male cousin’s clothes for years! I am so so sorry!”

Seeing her aunt in tears Harriet didn’t doubt that she was sorry, but could Harriet forgive her? One the one hand, she knew that Petunia had a really bad history with her mother, which of course doesn’t make her behaviour right. But then, Dumbledore’s letter did make her feel angry whenever she saw her. What if Dumbledore had put some kind of Compulsion Charm on it to spread out of the cupboard to Petunia, keyed to Harriet? And — and this was that worst case scenario — what if there was more to her relatives’ attitude towards her? And what if Dumbledore had something to do with her teachers at primary never noticing anything odd?

“Uh, well…I get that you’re sorry, and I understand, and I hope you know that it won’t be easy to forget was has happened”, Harriet said and if Petunia noticed how mature Harriet seemed for a six-year-old, she certainly didn’t show it. But honestly, Harriet thought that if Petunia had apologised in the original time-line, she would have said the exact same thing, even at six. She had always been brighter than other kids, only that she’s acted almost all her life. She had been punished for doing better than Dudley, and her downplaying her talents carried over to Hogwarts. She’d been better than Ron as not to fail her classes, but still worse than Hermione, to avoid hurting her feelings. 

Petunia sniffled. “Yes-“

Harriet interrupted her. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I won’t forgive you”, she said and Petunia’s eyes grew wide. The next second her arms were around the thin body of her niece. Then, she held Harriet away at an arm’s length and asked, “Where did you find that letter anyway?”

Harriet shrugged. “I found that box under my bed in the cupboard. It’s not only the letter that’s in there, but so many notes about magic spells and potions! It’s all so fascinating!” Harriet made a show of bouncing on her feet and grinning to seem more innocent than she actually was.

Now Petunia actually smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “That’s wonderful, Harriet. Now, would you mind doing your usual chores for when Vernon and Dudley are back? I’ll help you, of course, so that it goes faster.” Harriet nodded enthusiastically. She had actually always enjoyed cooking and caring for the flowerbeds — even without protective gloves. It was fun, but all the other activities were hard on her small hands, so they weren’t as fun. “I’ll do the front and back yard, Aunt Petunia! And then I’ll cook lunch! Would you mind if I went to the park after doing the dishes?”

Petunia shook her head, really trying to do better now that Vernon wasn’t there. “No, I don’t mind. If Vernon asks, I’ll simply tell him you’ve finished all your chores and went to the park. Nothing more, nothing less. And I think we shouldn’t tell Vernon of this anytime soon. It wouldn’t end well for the both of us, and Dudley. And now off you go.”

And while Harriet kneeled in front of the flowerbeds, she wondered how Petunia expected to do what she did. Pretend to hate her around Vernon and Dudley, and then smile at her and help with the chores when they were away somewhere. She was bound to slip up someday. 

And then there was also the fact that Harriet should really tell Petunia about the time-travel thing. Not only would it be easier to change her identity, but it would also be way easier to find an appropriate explanation for Harriet suddenly leaving and another girl turning up in her place. Because as much as Harriet wanted to be gone from Privet Drive, she couldn’t let the wards and thus the protection fall away — she had no problem leaving Vernon there, but she couldn’t do that to Dudley and Petunia. But for now, they would both think of something different for a while. And since they were doing the work together, they’d have a bit of time to talk before Vernon and Dudley came home for lunch.

But who else should she tell about her true identity and time-travelling except Petunia? The goblins, of course. Otherwise she couldn’t really have them handle the cup in Bellatrix’ vault or her scar — if that even still was an issue with her going back in time (she didn't know if her soul was back as well, so couldn’t determine if the soul piece was there too) — without being able to tell them how she knew about horcruxes. Dumbledore would hopefully never know. She may just tell Amelia Bones, the current Head of the DMLE, whom she found out in her old timeline to be an old friend of her parents, and of course Sirius and Remus — after determining if they were trustworthy. About her friends…she’d have to see. She would obviously turn up at Hogwarts under another identity, so she’d have to chose carefully about whom to tell and whom not. Though she already knew that she’d have to practice Occlumency and only tell people with Occlumency shields — as Dumbledore, Voldemort and Snape were pros in Legilimency. 

Anyway, she’d definitely have to see about Occlumency shields for muggles and if they were a thing before telling anyone other than Petunia and maybe Dudley in a few zillion years. Vernon would never know, and Dumbledore wouldn’t even think of visiting them to check on Harriet’s whereabouts. The headmaster had some devices to see about her health and if she was still at Privet Drive, so that wouldn’t be a problem, but if Harriet Potter didn't turn up at Hogwarts, he was bound to come to check on her. 

Harriet paused what she was doing. On second thought, he’d ask Mrs. Figg about her or send Hagrid to collect her again. That man really had nothing else to do than send others to do his business. He was her self-appointed Magical Guardian, so why couldn’t he check on her well-being himself? Why wasn’t he there in the last five years? Of course, Harriet knew the reason, but it was still something to think about because there were surely more and deeper reasons for his actions.

But one thing was obvious: if Harriet was going to do anything, she’d so have to plan every step of it and study every possible outcome before acting. She’d need a Plan A, B, C, and possibly even a Plan D and E.


	6. vi. tell me about impossible, why don't you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet tells Petunia. They plot the next step.

But one thing was obvious: if Harriet was going to do anything, she’d so have to plan every step of it and study every possible outcome before acting. She’d need a Plan A, B, C, and possibly even a Plan D and E.

When Harriet finished tending to the garden, she went inside the house to see Petunia wiping the kitchen table. Why she would do that when lunch would be served in less than two hours was beyond Harriet, but she shrugged it off and sat down.

“I’ve finished, Aunt Petunia”, she said and swung her legs back and forth under the table, beaming at her not-really-aunt.

“That’s great, Harriet. Wait just one more minute and I’ll be ready, too.”

And it really did only take a minute, thought for Harriet it seriously felt like a lifetime. She shifted in her chair as she watched her aunt clean the table. This would be it. Now she would tell Petunia about the time-travel. Would she believe it? To be honest, that story was far-fetched, but it was true. 

“Is everything alright, Harriet?”, Petunia asked with a concerned voice and Harriet started. She hadn’t even noticed the woman in front of her sitting down. She really couldn’t keep the words in herself anymore, so she just blurted out, “I’m from the future.”

Way to drop the bomb, Harriet thought. 

“W-what? What do you mean ‘from the future’?”, Petunia asked confused.

Harriet sighed. “Ok, well…this sounds far-fetched, I know. Like, really far-fetched. It’s unbelievable, and to be honest, I’ve thought I impossible until this morning too, so you’ll just have to trust me to tell the truth about everything.” She stared down Petunia as she watched for any sign of suspicion or disbelief, but…nothing. Petunia just had a blank face on and nodded.

“I can’t say I believe you, but go on. I will hear you out and decide afterwards.”

And so Harriet started talking. About how her life continued being horrible even after her sixth birthday, how she found out about being a witch, her years at Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione, all her life-threatening adventures, how she spent her last year living in a tent living off mushrooms. She told Petunia how she married Ron and had three children that were all at Hogwarts already. How her life had turned out and how she got killed by a first year student cursing her while her back was turned. About everything Línnea had told her about her life. And, of course, about Dumbledore and how he had manipulated her life even before she was born.

“She said that the Whomping Willow, a very dangerous tree, was highly illegal and that one students died from its branches and another fell into a coma…”, she said and trailed off. 

Petunia’s eyes were wide with shock, but before she could say anything, Harriet continued. “The children who died died the year the tree was set up. It was their first year at Hogwarts…their names were Elizabeth Potter and Rose Evans. Yes, they were Mum’s and Dad’s twin sisters. Rose died. But Elizabeth survived. Or at least I think she did. All I know is that she lost an arm and fell into a coma with a broken skull. If she ever came out of it…” She trailed off again.

“Rosie? My little sister? Rose Suzie Evans? She died because of a tree?”

Harriet sighed. “Another bomb-drop, Aunt Petunia. She wasn’t really your sister. Mum wasn’t either. And your parents weren’t really your parents either.”

“What do you mean, they weren’t my sister or parents?”, Petunia asked. She already had tears streaming down her face.

“Línnea told me that Grandpa and Grandma thought they couldn’t have any children, so they adopted you. But two years later they were proven wrong when Mum and Aunt Rose were born. That’s why you’ve always looked so different from your family. Because they weren’t your biological family. You with me so far?”

Petunia nodded, tears still streaming down her face as she listened to her not-really niece go on with her tale about time-travel. It sounded unbelievable. In fact, it sounded so unbelievable and far-fetched that a six-year-old would come up with such a story, she just had to believe it.

“I believe you, Harriet. Everything. It just sounds so impossible…”

Harriet laughed loudly. “Tell me about impossible, why don’t you? Believe me, I know. All my life could probably be described be the word ‘impossible’. But here I am, telling you the truth about my life.” 

She looked Petunia dead in the eye and said seriously, “I’m glad that you believe me. I don’t think I can take on Dumbledore alone like this.” At the last words she gestured at her children’s body and chuckled slightly. Petunia’s lips quirked upwards ever so slightly. But as soon as the smile came, it went away again and both of them sobered.

“What do you plan to do against Dumbledore?”, Petunia asked.

“Well, the first thing I want to do is to go to Gringotts and get my inheritance. Then I want to change my name and make Harriet Potter disappear from the world. What we do after that is that we do everything in our power to get my godfather Sirius Black out of prison because he was framed by someone who is still a free man.”

Petunia nodded. “Ok, but when do you want to do this?”

“Remember when I said I wanted to go to the park today?” Petunia nodded. “Well, I was planning on going to Gringotts instead of the park to start on our plan. You can go too. Maybe you’ve got magical blood in yourself.”

Petunia perked up, but deflated again quickly. “And what do we tell Vernon?”

“Today’s Thursday, right?”, Harriet asked and Petunia nodded confused. “Doesn’t Uncle Vernon have to go to work again at about 3pm? And doesn’t he only come back at like 10pm? We’d have enough time to get everything done. So, do you want to come?”

“Of course I do! If I get even some kind of information about my family, that will be more than enough!”

Harriet smiled. “Perfect. Then how about we-“ 

At that moment, the door opened and they heard Vernon shout his greeting through the house.

“I’m home, Pet! FREAK! IS OUR LUNCH READY?”

Petunia quickly left walked out to greet Vernon with a peck on the cheek. Fortunately he did not see his wife grimacing at the kiss. Now that Harriet knew everything, she didn’t have to pretend in her presence anymore. 

Harriet also stood up and went into the hall. “Yes, Uncle Vernon. Lunch is completely ready. We’ll just have to wait until Dudley comes back from school.”

Vernon nodded, suspicious of his niece’s behaviour. Normally this was the time for any six-year-old to complain about the work they do. No, Vernon hadn’t forgotten that today was Harriet’s birthday, but why should he acknowledge a freak’s birthday? He practically scanned Harriet up and down before taking his gaze away and walking into the kitchen to sit down at the table.

He didn't even wait for Dudley to come home and started munching on the food Harriet had prepared while she was talking with Petunia.

When Dudley finally came back home and they all started eating, Vernon and him were too preoccupied to notice Harriet eating as much as Petunia, and the female’s were somewhere completely different with their thoughts. 

They had to prepare what to tell Dudley and what to say if Vernon came home early for some unknown reason or if Dudley decided to throw a temper tantrum again. 

Needless to say, they had to plan a lot of back-up plans. Fortunately they both had many ideas for back-up plans, though they hoped to never need them.


	7. vii. can you fly a broomstick, harriet?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet, Petunia explain stuff to Dudley and go to Diagon Alley. And no, they won't tell him about the time travel stuff.

Needless to say, they had to plan a lot of back-up plans. Fortunately they both had many ideas for back-up plans, though they hoped to never need them.

When three o’clock finally rolled around, Vernon had just left the house and entered in car to drive to work for his second shift of the day. Dudley was still munching on his chocolate ice-cream, though Petunia had given him less than normally. Petunia and Harriet were both sitting at the table, watching Dudley.

“Dudley?”, Petunia asked when Dudley was finally finished with his dish.

“Huh?”

“Harriet and I have to go to the bank because of something her parents left for her. Do you want to come with us or go to Piers’ house?”

Dudley was seriously thinking about it. Going to a bank (where money comes from) with his mother and freak cousin and miss out punching three-year-olds at the park, or going to Piers for ‘fun’ and miss out on something his freak cousin gets to do alone with his mother? The decision was easily made.

“I want to come!”, said Dudley sternly. He didn't want Harriet to be allowed to do something that he wasn’t allowed to. 

Petunia nodded. “Alright. But on two conditions. One, you will be nice to Harriet for the whole time we are away.” Dudley opened his mouth to say something, but Petunia glared at him. Something Harriet hasn’t seen ever since the Hogwarts letter incident in the old timeline. “And two, you will not tell your father about any of this. If he asks, tell him you and I went to the park and dropped Harriet off at Mrs. Figg’s. Alright?”

Dudley instantly nodded. He didn't like it, though. Why did his mother suddenly have conditions for things he wanted to do? And why should he be nice to the freak Harriet? But he didn’t think much about it, because it was better than to let her do something that he couldn’t.

“Ok, Dudley. You will have to listen carefully to me and what I say. It is all the truth and no matter what, you will not tell your father that you know.”

“But why does Freak get to know?”, he asked loudly and Petunia shot him a look.

“Because, it has to do with how her parents died.” Dudley shut up, which she took as a sign to continue. “Ok, you remember when Mrs. Smythe’s hair turned blue while she shouted at Harriet?” Dudley nodded. “Well, why do you think it turned blue?”

Dudley thought about it. His parents had punished the freak for it, but how could she have done it if she was seated at the end of the classroom?

“I don’t know. Harriet sat in the last row of the classroom while Mrs. Smythe shouted from the front. She couldn’t have done anything to turn it blue, could she?” Dudley may seem like a little pig with clothes on and dumber than any other, but that wasn’t true. While he truly didn't care about his grades or school in general, he did know what logic and common sense was. And from his logic, Mrs. Smythe’s hair shouldn’t have turned blue in the middle of the lesson without any tools. But from his parents’ logic it was all Harriet’s fault, so why shouldn’t he believe them?

“Yes Dudley. Under normal circumstances that shouldn’t have been possible. However, Harriet isn’t normal. But she isn’t a freak either. She’s a witch.”

“A witch? Like a magic witch? With a pointy hat and a broomstick? And warts on her crooked nose? And a black cat and poisons?” Then he took a good look at Harriet and reconsidered. “But she doesn’t look like a witch.”

“Not that kind of witch. She’s a witch with spells, potions, broomsticks, wizards, and even Merlin. Her mother, your Aunt Lily, was a witch too. And her father was a wizard. There are evil witches and wizards too, but most of them are good.”

“But why did you always say magic wasn’t real and that Harriet was a freak?”

“Because- because a wizard wanted us to hurt her. He put a spell on the letter that came with Harriet and it made your father be so violent towards her. As for me, he said-“ At this she started to sob and forgot that Dudley was still actually a six-year-old boy. “He said he’d kill you and me both if I didn't pretend to hate her. But today…Harriet heard me arguing with Vernon and asked me about it, so I told her all about it already.”

Dudley’s expression could only be explained as one of a gaping fish. “You- you mean Dad wants to kill us?”

Petunia nodded. “Yes. If I didn't pretend to hate Harriet.” She sniffled quietly.

“Ok, but what does all that have to do with F- Harriet’s parents dying? Did some kind of evil wizard person come and kill them with that wand thingy in his hand?”

“Actually, yes, Dudley.” Dudley looked horrified. “They were hunted down, I don’t know why, but they went into hiding. No one knew where they were except some friends of them. But one of them, as I’ve been told, has told that evil wizard where they were. He came to them and killed your Aunt Lily and Uncle James. He tried to kill Harriet, too. But something apparently went wrong and she survived. The next morning she was on our doorstep. In the middle of a cold November night! With nothing but a spelled letter attached to her blanket.” Petunia suddenly sobered. “But that’s not the only thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

Dudley suddenly looked very curious. “What’s it?”

“Well, we need to protect Harriet from both of those wizards that want to hurt her. So we have to change her name and looks. But magically, and permanently. So we’ve got to go to the magical world and to their bank to do it. I still remember from when I was a kid, there were goblins leading the bank-“

“Real goblins?! Like in the films?”

“Similar, yes. So we’ve got to go there and look for her family to find what name she could take on. But some children find the goblins scary, I certainly did. Do you still want to come or should we drop you off at Piers’?”

“I wanna come!”, Dudley stated without hesitation, and Petunia nodded. Harriet, who hadn’t said anything the whole time, nodded, too. 

“Can we go now, Aunt Petunia?”, she asked eagerly, bouncing in her seat.

Petunia smiled. “Yes, Harriet. We’ll go now. Come on, get your coats and shoes on and we’ll catch the bus to London.”

—

The whole time on the bus Dudley asked questions about magic and Petunia answered them patiently.

“Can you fly a broomstick, Harriet? Can you teach me?”, he asked after a few minuted eagerly.

“I can’t fly a broomstick, but my Dad could. He was a superb flyer and was considered to fly for England! But I think non-magical people can’t fly broomsticks, Dudley…”

“How do you know that? Did Mum tell you?”

Harriet looked at Dudley and smiled happily. “No. I found that box under my bed this morning. It was full of magical school texts and notes from my parents. There were even pictures in there. And they were moving!”

“Moving? Like films?”

“Yes, just like films! Just shorter. I was so confused at first when they started moving!”

And so the conversation continued for the ride, Dudley forgetting that he’s ever hated Harriet, and Harriet trying to sound like a real six-year-old without any experience on magic other than what she found under her cot and got told by Petunia.

—

“Come, Harriet, Dudley. That’s our stop!”, Petunia announced as they exited the bus and walked across Charing Cross Road.

“Ok, Harriet. I remember that we went into a small building called ‘The Leaky Cauldron’. I could only see it when your mother’s escort and her pointed it out to us. Keep your eyes open for an old pub with a sign saying the name of it above. Oh, and cover up that scar. We don’t want people recognising you.”

“Yes, Aunt Petunia!”, Harriet said as she looked around, searching for that dingy-looking pub. She knew where it was, of course, but Dudley didn't know that. 

But Dudley had apparently listened to Petunia telling Harriet what to do any decided to look around as well, only to exclaim a few seconds later, “There! Mummy, Harriet, I found it! It says ‘The Lea-ky coldren’!” Dudley couldn’t read fluently yet, but it was enough to be able to tell where the pub was situated.

“But didn't Aunt Petunia say you wouldn’t be able to see it? You’re non-magical, you’re not supposed to see it.”

Petunia looked shocked, too. 

“Maybe I’m a wizard”, Dudley said, then his eyes widened as he processed what he just said. He turned to Petunia. “Mummy, Mummy! Am I a wizard? A true wizard?”

“I don’t know, sweetums. Maybe we’ll test you, too. I’m pretty sure the goblins can tell magicals apart from non-magicals. Let’s go in.”

Dudley bounced forward and pulled the door open, Harriet only covering her scar with her hair just at the right second and right before stepping into the pub.

“Ah, hello. Here for a meal, a room are just to go through?”, the barkeeper asked kindly as he noticed them. Dudley hid slightly behind Petunia’s legs (not that he succeeded) and Harriet just looked at the older man in front of them.

“No, sir”, Petunia said kindly. “We wanted to go through to the Alley. My niece is a witch and my son may be a wizard, but I myself am not magical. I only know about magic through my deceased muggle-born sister. We wanted to make a test to see what she left us and if she had a will, but we are in need of assistance.”

The barkeeper looked at her in sympathy. “Of course, Ma’m, of course. Just through here, I’ll open the Alley for you. And non of that ‘sir’ business. Just call me Tom. Everyone here does.”

Petunia smiled at Tom as he led them through the pub and out the back. “Thank you.”

“Oh, it was nothing”, Tom waved them off as he tapped the bricks and waited for the wall to open. “Welcome to Diagon Alley!”, he stated proudly as he looked at Dudley’s face of wonder and Harriet’s un-faked one of awe.

“Come on, Mum! I wanna see the goblins!”, Dudley said as he pulled Petunia into the Alley. 

“Slow down, Dudley. The goblins aren’t going to leave if we don’t hurry up!”, she said amusedly, but let herself be pulled through. 

“Thanks again, Tom”, she said right before the way closed. She turned to her son and her adult-turned-child niece. “Now, where to first?” She pretended to think and smiled as Dudley exclaimed, “Goblins!” in a very loud voice.

“Yes, I think that’d be wise. We want to make that family tests, after all, right? And if we want to buy something, we need magical money. Hm…we’re was that bank again…” She looked around in sincere confusion, but Harriet thought she’d help Petunia out a bit.

“Aunt Tuney! That white building over there says ‘Gringotts! And it’s so big! Maybe that’s the bank?”, she said excitedly. Petunia looked ahead and saw the white marble building in front of them.

“You know what? You might be right. Are those goblins guarding the door?”

“Goblins? Where?”, Dudley asked loudly, craning his neck to see what his mother was looking at.

And there it was. Gringotts, the wizard bank. Because of their circumstances, Harriet called it the ‘Bank of Truth’ in her head now.

And as a family of three, the Dursley-Potter clan entered Gringotts.


	8. viii. i have a sister?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Petunia, Dudley and Harriet are at Gringotts and Petunia takes her Inheritance Test.

And as a family of three, the Dursley-Potter clan entered Gringotts.

It was simply glorious, but all Dudley was fixated on were the goblins. He stared at them in awe and with an open mouth. 

“Close your mouth, Dudley. And stop staring. Goblins aren’t known to be nice to humans!”, Harriet hissed to her cousin, who closed his mouth and gulped before nodding and turning to look at everything else instead. But no matter where he looked, his gaze always miraculously ended up back on another goblin.

Petunia was nervous, and Harriet just looked around boredly, occasionally reminding Dudley to stop staring or close his mouth. After a few seconds they finally stood in front of a very grumpy-looking goblin, who didn't even look up.

“Excuse me?”, Petunia asked, but the goblin continued writing whatever he was writing. She looked at Harriet in exasperation.

Harriet sighed. “May your enemies quiver in fear at the sight of you”, she said and the goblin looked up sharply to see a little six-year-old girl addressing him in formal goblin greeting.

“Name and inquiry?”

“Harriet Potter, Dudley Dursley and Petunia Dursley. We would like to speak with the Potter Account Manager, if it is possible.” The goblin was gobsmacked at first, but regained his posture quickly. He truly didn't expect the Girl-Who-Lived in their bank. 

“We need three drops of blood from all three of you to confirm your identity.” At the sight of Dudley’s face, he said, “It won’t hurt more than a bug sting. And it’s standard procedure. We’ve had many people coming and claiming to be Harriet Potter.”

After they did that — only the goblin looked at the names — he nodded at them. “It seems that you really are who you claim to be. Sharpclaw!”, he said loudly. “Take those three to the Potter Account Manager!”

“Of course, Heartaxe”, Sharpclaw said, and walked away. Harriet, Petunia and Dudley followed behind, not sure how this was going to end for any of them.

When they were in the office — they assumed it was the Potter Account Manager’s — they sat down and waited for the goblin on the other side of the desk to say something.

“May your vaults overflow with money”, Harriet said respectfully again, knowing they wouldn’t get acknowledged otherwise. And she was right. As soon as she said that, the goblin looked at her curiously and a bit surprised.

“And may your enemies quiver at the sight of you”, the goblin said. “Now, I understand that you three would like to undergo an Inheritance test?” All three nodded. “Alright, who wants to go first?” 

“I guess I will”, Petunia said slowly and the goblin nodded, grinning toothily.

“Good. The test will require seven drops of your blood to drop onto that parchment.” He pointed at the parchment in front of her and Dudley and Harriet noticed the same parchments in front of them. She held out her hand and let it be cut by the dagger in the goblin’s hand. She let seven drops of blood drop onto the parchment in front of her and watched as it absorbed the red liquid before writing started appearing.

#### Name:

**Stella Maeve Dursley née Black**

#### Adopted Name:

**Petunia Maria Dursley née Evans**

**Status: Witch**

###### Family:

****

#### Father:

**Orion Phineas Black (deceased)**

#### Mother:

**Walburga Callidora Black née Black**

#### Adopted Father:

**Michael Brian Evans**

#### Adopted Mother:

**Amaryllis Melanie Evans née Bask**

#### Godfather:

**Abraxas Scorpius Malfoy (deceased)**

#### Godmother:

**Dorea Melania Potter née Black (alive, unknown location)**

#### Adopted Godfather:

**Geoffrey Lucas Evans**

#### Adopted Godmother:

**Dahlia Monica Cole née Bask**

#### Siblings:

**Sirius Orion Black III (illegally imprisoned)  
Regulus Arcturus Black (alive, at an unknown location)**

#### Adopted Siblings:

**Lily Amaryllis Potter née Evans (deceased)  
Rose Marie Evans (deceased)**

#### Children:

**Dudley Vernon Dursley  
Basilla Marjorie Dursley**

###### Titles:

**Ancient and Most Noble House of Black (By Blood)  
Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin (By Magic)  
Ancient and Most Noble House of Bask (By Magic)  
Most Ancient and Noble House of Hufflepuff (By Marriage)**

###### Properties:

****

#### Black:

**12 Grimmauld Place, England  
Vacation Home, USA**

#### Slytherin:

**Slytherin Manor, Scotland**

#### Bask:

**Bask Manor, Ireland**

#### Hufflepuff:

**Hufflepuff Manor, Scotland**

###### Vaults:

****

#### Black Family Vault:

**367.428.333 Galleons, 12 Sickles, 8 Knuts, Jewellery, Portraits, Books, Artefacts, Clothes**

#### Stella Maeve Black Trust Vault:

**100.000.000.000.000 Galleons, refilled annually on 13th August**

#### Slytherin Family Vault:

**16.748 Galleons, 2 Sickles, Books, Portraits, Artefacts, Jewellery, Potions Ingredients**

#### Hufflepuff Family Vault:

**13.444 Galleons, 15 Sickles, 3 Knuts**

#### Bask Family Vault:

**444.295.200.178 Galleons, 7 Sickles, 3 Knuts, Jewellery, Portraits, Books, Artefacts, Clothes**

#### Malfoy Family Vault:

**395.333.290.189.111 Galleons, 11 Sickles, 1 Knut, Portraits, Jewellery, Books, Clothes, Artefacts**

###### Potions and Spells:

****

#### Riddance Potion:

**Used to prevent pregnancies (first used in 1983)**

#### Compulsion Charm:

**Resentment towards Severus Tobias Snape (first used in 1965)**  
Hatred towards all magicals (first used in 1969, broken in 1986)  
Love towards Vernon Horst Dursley (first used in 1973, partly broken in 1986) 

###### Blocks:

****

#### Magical Core:

**70% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 15th August 1958, 3% broken)**

#### Parseltongue:

**100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 15th August 1958)**

#### Animagus:

**100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 15th August 1958)**

#### Metamorphmagus:

**97% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 15th August 1958)**

When the parchment finally stopped filling with more information, Harriet and Petunia were shocked at the results. Dudley looked shocked as well, but less so them his family, since he didn't know much about magic.

“Basilla is alive? I thought she died just after being born because it was three months early. At least that’s what I was told”, Petunia said. 

“I have a sister?”, Dudley asked.

“You’re a Black?! You’re my godfather’s sister, Aunt Petu- uh, Stella!”

The goblin suddenly looked at Harriet. “Ah, Harriet Potter.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Something tells me that you’re older than you look to be, Miss Potter. Or should I perhaps say…Mrs. Weasley?” Harriet sucked in breath. How did he know that?

“Uh…please don’t call me that, Mr…”

“Just Griphook”, the goblin said.

Harriet cleared her throat. “Of course, Griphook. And please, refrain from calling me that.”

“What? Harriet, what is he talking about? Mrs. Weasley? I thought you were Harriet Potter. Just Harriet. That’s true, isn’t it? And what did he mean when he said you’re older than you look?”, Dudley started asked wildly and loudly.

Harriet sighed. Now she had to tell him. She couldn’t exactly wave it off now. She started to open her mouth, but Griphook interrupted. “You may discuss that later, Mr. Dursley. Now, Mr. Dursley, you may drop seven drops of your blood on your parchment.”

While Dudley was doing just that, Harriet was panicking about what to tell Dudley and how. She hadn’t planned for him to find out about her secret anytime soon, but of course Griphook had to drop the bomb right here. 

Of course Petuni- er, Stella’s results had surprised all of them, though Petunia was on the verge of crying and only fixated on the fact that her daughter, Basilla, was still alive and hadn’t died minutes after being born. Harriet wondered why she never knew about that in her previous life, though that basically explained itself. She was an ignorant girl, the perfect pawn for Dumbledore, so of course she wouldn’t have known about Basilla. 

But that’s not the only thing she was worrying about. After seeing Pe- Stella’s test results, Harriet was anxious to discover whatever she would. What did it mean that Stella was the Heiress of Slytherin by Magic? And the House of Bask, too. Bask…that was the maiden name of Harriet’s maternal grandmother. Maybe through adoption, meaning through the Evans family? And to Hufflepuff through Marriage. Did that mean- no, it couldn’t mean that Vernon Dursley was actually a squib descendent of Helga Hufflepuff. It just couldn’t. 

But even if it didn’t, if Stella was the Heiress of Slytherin through adoption, Harriet would be by blood, magic and conquest, since she defeated Voldemort, who’s also an Heir of Slytherin by blood. And all the blocks, spells and potions made Harriet dizzy just thinking about it. If that’s what Stella had to endure, she honestly didn't want to know what would be revealed in her Inheritance Test. 

Anyway, P- Stella had so much money in her Trust Vault alone. She could live without having to work ever again with only that. Even Dudley and Basilla, and their children and any children those should have would never have problems without a job or an income. 

On another note, Harriet truly pitied Stella for her parents. Walburga and Orion Black really wouldn’t be the pair she would wish on anyone as parents. And her kind-of honorary aunt, godfather and their brother had that misfortune she wouldn’t wish on anyone except maybe her worst enemy, namely Dumbledore.

But before Harriet could continue that train of thought, she was snapped out of her daze by a loud and slightly childish gasp that pulled her gaze towards Dudley’s Inheritance Test, which was just a few inches longer than Stella’s.

And what she saw made her blood boil. There definitely wouldn’t be much left of Dumbledore when Harriet was finished with the old bastard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I guess some of what I wrote came as a surprise. Yes, Petunia is really a Black with the name Stella Maeve. Yes, the Dursley's are descended from Helga Hufflepuff, and yes, that means they're related to Zacharias and Hebzibah Smith. And yes, the Evans' aren't so muggle as you thought. And yes, Stella can get money and other stuff from all the vaults even though the families still have living members. And yes, the goblins know, they can sense it. And yes, the next two chapters are Dudley's and Harriet's tests. And yes, Harriet will tell Dudley. I mean, what else could she do? He heard Griphook call his cousin Mrs. Weasley, what is he supposed to think if she doesn't tell him? And yes, Walburga is still alive (she died in 1986, but no exact date is known; and seeing as they are in '86 right now...and yes, the witch thing gets explained. And no, she's not a squib. And no, I'm not tellng you if Dudley is a wizard or a squib. And yes, Reggie is still alive. And yes, Dorea Potter is also still alive. Charlus isn't really related to Stella, so he doesn't show on the parchment. But it will show up on Harriet's test, and I still have to decide if he's alive or not. And yes, Vernon chose Basilla's second name. And yes, Basilla is the female verson of Basil (a male flower name). 
> 
> And YES, I'm finished.


	9. ix. can he please choke on his lemon drops?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dudley and Harriet take their Inheritance test.

And what she saw made her blood boil. There definitely wouldn’t be much left of Dumbledore when Harriet was finished with the old bastard.

####  **Name:**

**  
Dudley Vernon Dursley**

####  **Status: Wizard**

****

######  **Family:**

####  **Father:**

**  
Vernon Horst Dursley  
**

#### Mother:

**  
Stella Maeve Dursley née Black**

####  **Godfather:**

**  
Marcus Apperby (deceased)  
**

#### Godmother:

**  
Yvonne Missle**

####  **Siblings:**

**  
Basilla Marjorie Dursley**

****

######  **Titles:**

**Ancient and Most Noble House of Black (By Blood)  
Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin (By Magic)  
Ancient and Most Noble House of Bask (By Magic)  
Most Ancient and Noble House of Hufflepuff (By Marriage)**

****

######  **Properties:**

####  **Black:**

**12 Grimmauld Place, England  
Vacation Home, USA**

####  **Slytherin:**

**Slytherin Manor, Scotland**

####  **Bask:**

**Bask Manor, Ireland**

####  **Hufflepuff:**

**Hufflepuff Manor, Scotland**

****

######  **Vaults:**

####  **Black Family Vault:**

**  
367.428.333 Galleons, 12 Sickles, 8 Knuts, Jewellery, Portraits, Books, Artefacts, Clothes  
**

#### Stella Maeve Black’s Oldest Child’s Trust Vault:

**  
100.000.000.000.000 Galleons, 10.000 Galleons added annually on 21st June  
**

#### Slytherin Family Vault:  


**16.748 Galleons, 2 Sickles, Books, Portraits, Artefacts, Jewellery, Potions Ingredients  
**

#### Hufflepuff Family Vault:

**  
13.444 Galleons, 15 Sickles, 3 Knuts  
**

#### Bask Family Vault:

**  
444.295.200.178 Galleons, 7 Sickles, 3 Knuts, Jewellery, Portraits, Books, Artefacts, Clothes  
**

#### Malfoy Family Vault  


**395.333.290.189.111 Galleons, 11 Sickles, 1 Knut, Portraits, Jewellery, Books, Clothes, Artefacts**

****

######  **Potions and Spells:**

####  **Compulsion Charm:**

**  
Resentment towards Harriet Jamila Potter (first used in 1981)  
Hate towards all magicals (first used in 1981, broken in 1986)  
Hate towards all work-related things (first used in 1984, broken in 1985)  
Preference to tantrum-throwing (first used in 1980)  
Preference for violence over words (first used in 1981, broken in 1985)**

****

######  **Blocks:**

####  **Magical Core:**

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 23rd June 1980, 25% broken)  
**

#### Parseltongue:

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 23rd June 1980)  
**

#### Animagus:

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 23rd June 1980)  
**

#### Metamorphmagus:

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 23rd June 1980)  
**

#### Mage Sight:

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 23rd June 1980)**

In principal, it was about the same as Stella’s, only with a few adjustments in the family sections and additions in the Potions, Spells and Blocks section. 

“Who’s Marcus Apperby?”, Dudley asked, never having heard of the man listed as his godfather. 

“He was a co-worker of your father, sweetie”, Stella answered her son.

“What happened to him?”, Harriet asked, curious as well. She’d never heard of that man as well. Not even in her old time line. Whatever happened to him, he either died or just didn't fulfil his duty as Dudley’s godfather. And Yvonne, his godmother, was well known even to Harriet. But even she was a person that only came around for tea once in a while, not even looking at Dudley twice.

“You know how Vernon makes drills?” Both children nodded, one of them being far too old mentally to be a child. “Well, Marcus had an accident a few months after you, Dudley, were born. He died in that accident. I don’t know what happened exactly, though I don’t think anyone really knows, since no one was there to see what happened.” Stella scrunched up her nose slightly. Obviously it was Vernon’s choice to make that Marcus guy Dudley’s godfather, which she didn't like at all.

“Oh”, Dudley and Harriet said together. Then Dudley seemed to remember something else entirely as he turned to Griphook. 

“I’m a wizard, right? But that Dum- Dumb- Dumble-something guy made it not work. Can you please make it work again, Mr. Griphook?”, he pleaded and Griphook’s face softened slightly.

“Of course we can. But first we will have to look at your, ahem, ‘cousin’s’ test to see if we have to remove blocks and spells off her too.”

Dudley nodded defeated, but let his cousin drop seven drops of her blood drip on her test parchment. It took a few minutes, and Harriet’s parchment was way longer than Dudley’s and Stella’s, and that’s not only from all the money she’d inherit, but mostly from the blocks and spells she had on her.

####  **Name:**

**  
Harriet Jamila Weasley née Potter-Black**

####  **Status:**

**Witch**

######  **Family:**

####  **Father:**

**  
James Fleamont Potter  
**

#### Blood-Adopted Father:

**  
Sirius Orion Black III  
**

#### Mother:

**  
Lily Amaryllis Potter née Evans**

####  **Godfather:**

**  
Sirius Orion Black III  
**

#### Godmother:

**  
Alice Longbottom née Fortescue**

####  **Siblings:**

**  
None**

****

######  **Titles:**

**Ancient and Most Noble House of Black (By Blood)  
Most Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin (By Blood and Conquest)  
Ancient and Most Noble House of Bask (By Blood)  
Most Ancient and Noble House of Hufflepuff (By Magic)  
Most Ancient and Noble House of Peverell (By Blood)  
Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Gryffindor (By Blood)  
Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Ravenclaw (By Blood)  
Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Gaunt (By Blood)**

****

######  **Properties:**

####  **Black:**

**12 Grimmauld Place, England  
Vacation Home, USA**

####  **Slytherin:**

**Slytherin Manor, Scotland**

####  **Ravenclaw:**

**Ravenclaw Manor, Scotland  
Ravenclaw Library, Scotland**

####  **Gryffindor:**

**Gryffindor Castle, Ireland**

####  **Bask:**

**Bask Manor, Ireland**

####  **Hufflepuff:**

**Hufflepuff Manor, Scotland**

####  **Peverell:**

**Peverell Cottage, England  
Peverell Château, France**

####  **Gaunt:**

**Gaunt Shack, England**

****

######  **Vaults:**

####  **Black Family Vault:**

**  
367.428.333 Galleons, 12 Sickles, 8 Knuts, Jewellery, Portraits, Books, Artefacts, Clothes  
**

#### Harriet Jamila Potter-Black’s Trust Vault:

**  
100.000.000.000 Galleons, 10.000 Galleons added annually on 31st July  
**

#### Slytherin Family Vault:

**  
16.748 Galleons, 2 Sickles, Books, Portraits, Artefacts, Jewellery, Potions Ingredients  
**

#### Hufflepuff Family Vault:

**  
13.444 Galleons, 15 Sickles, 3 Knuts  
**

#### Ravenclaw Family Vault:

**  
9.049 Galleons, 2 Sickles, 15 Knuts, Books, Portraits, Jewellery  
**

#### Gryffindor Family Vault:

**  
187.997 Galleons, 14 Sickles, 1 Knut, Books, Portraits, Artefacts, Jewellery, Clothes, Staffs, Duelling Equipment  
**

#### Bask Family Vault:

**  
444.295.200.178 Galleons, 7 Sickles, 3 Knuts, Jewellery, Portraits, Books, Artefacts, Clothes  
**

#### Peverell Family Vault:

**  
263.998.777.837.000 Galleons, 6 Sickles, Portraits, Books, Artefacts, Jewellery, Clothes, Duelling Equipment, Wands, Staffs  
**

#### Gaunt Family Vault:

**  
2.080 Galleons, 15 Sickles, 1 Knut, Artefacts, Wands, Clothes, Jewellery  
**

###### Potions and Spells:

****

####  **Compulsion Charm:**

**  
Trust towards Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (first used in 1980, broken in 2016)  
Hate towards Slytherins, Severus Tobias Snape and Tom Marvolo Riddle (first used in 1980, broken in 1998)  
Trust towards Ronald Bilius Weasley (first used in 1990, broken in 2016)  
Trust towards everything Light (first used in 1980, broken in 2016)  
Love for Quidditch (first used in 1991, broken in 1992)  
Fear of Dudley Vernon Dursley and Vernon Horst Dursley (first used in 1981, broken in 1985)  
Preference for silence(first used in 1981, broken in 1985)  
Recklessness (first used in 1984, broken in 2014)  
**

#### Potions:

**  
Love towards Ronald Bilius Weasley (first used in 1995, broken in 2016)  
Loyalty towards Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (first used in 1983, broken in 2016)  
Loyalty towards Weasley Family (first used in 1986, broken in 2016)  
Disinterest towards Percy Weasley (first used in 1991)**

****

######  **Blocks:**

####  **Magical Core:**

**  
60% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 23rd June 1980, 25% broken)  
20% blocked (by T. M. Riddle’s horcrux on 31st October, 1981)  
**

#### Parseltongue:

**  
70% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 31st October, 1981)  
**

#### Animagus:

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 2nd August, 1980)  
**

#### Metamorphmagus:

**  
97% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 2nd August 1980)  
**

#### Mage Sight:

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 2nd August 1980)  
**

#### Natural Necromancy:

**  
100% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 2nd August 1980)  
**

#### Horcrux:

**  
1% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 31st October, 1981) Applied by T. M. Riddle on 31st October, 1981  
**

#### Intelligence:

**  
70% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 31st October, 1981)  
**

#### Eidetic Memory: 

**  
89% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 2nd August, 1981)  
**

#### Common Sense: 

**  
78% blocked (by A. P. W. B. Dumbledore on 31st October, 1981)**

That made even Griphook’s blood boil. He and all the other goblins knew that Dumbledore wasn’t who he made everyone believe he was, but all those blocks, spells and potions. That was something even the goblins wouldn’t have pegged him to do. But here they were, reading the results of one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore running free. 

I hope he chokes on his Lemon Drops, Harriet and Griphook thought. 

“Why do some of them say dates that are still far away, Mr. Griphook? And can someone NOW explain why it says Harriet Weasley? What’s Mage Sight? What does Ei-deedic Memry mean? What’s Necromasy? Mum? Mr. Griphook?” Dudley looked at their amused faces.

Griphook spoke first, his voice shaking from suppressed rage. “This is not good…absolutely not good…” He cleared his throat and looked at Dudley. “Mage Sight means that Mrs. W- Ms. Potter-Black can see magic of all kinds if she concentrates on it hard enough. You can do that, too, Mr. Dursley. Eidetic Memory means that Ms. Potter-Black can remember everything she’s ever read. And Necromancy…I don’t think you’re old enough to know that yet. About why it says Weasley…” He turned to Harriet with a sadistic grin. “Would you do the honour of explaining your little trip to him?”

Harriet groaned as she glared at Griphook before giving a long-suffering sigh and looking at Stella for help, but she only shook her head, trying to smile but only managing a grimace.

Harriet looked back to Griphook. “Can we do that after removing the blocks, spells and potions from all of us?”

Griphook thought about it for a minute. For a few seconds it looked like he’d say no and humiliate Harriet right now, but then he sighed. “Alright. But I’ll warn you, it’ll hurt. Mr. Dursley and Mrs. Dursley, for you it will hurt badly, but for you, Ms. Potter-Black…have you ever experienced the Cruciatus Curse?” Harriet nodded. “Take that tenfold and you’ll have the amount of pain you’ll have while we remove all the blocks and the other spells and such from you.” 

Harriet paled and took a deep breath before nodding. “Alright, should I go first?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy, I got a new chapter up! Okay, on Wattpad and ff.net it was already up for days, but yeah...here it is. Anyway, I've now noticed that so many people are writing LGBTQ+ Harry Potter fanfics to spite JKR, and honestly, I'm just gonna say my opinion to it now. 
> 
> I have nothing against people of the LGBTQ community, or against JKR, or against anyone in particular, and I love reading those kind of fanfics, but honestly, writing a fanfic just to spite the author of the canon universe? Really? I wanted to write a Trans Harry fanfic for a long time now, and I already had like, 5 chapters, but before I publish that I'll have to finish Oblivious and rewrite the whole five chapters before continuing.
> 
> Anyway, that's all I have to say, and if you want to do it to spite the author, do it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
> 
> Byeeeeee


	10. x. why does your hair have blue streaks?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet gets cleansed of all the nasty spells, potions and blocks Dumbledore's put on her. Oh, and the horcrux leaves, too.

Harriet paled and took a deep breath before nodding. “Alright, should I go first?”

Dudley nodded instantly, being very scared of the process. Griphook said that it’d hurt really bad, so he wanted to delay it as long as possible. Stella looked reluctant though. 

“Are you sure, Harriet?”, she asked worriedly. “I can go first, too. It won’t be too much trouble.”

But Harriet shook her head. “No, it’s okay. Really. I know it’s going to hurt, but I just want all those blocks, spells and potions out of me. And that horcrux…” She shuddered. She smiled encouragingly at her aunt, who didn't really relax, but nodded anyway. 

“Alright”, Stella said. “Good luck.” She kissed Harriet on the forehead last time, now not seeing Harriet Jamila Potter, her brother-in-law’s spawn, but Lily. She looked into Harriet’s eyes and tears fell from her eyes. She knew she wouldn’t lose Harriet, but those glowing green eyes reminded her so much of Lily, and add to that the fact that she’s willingly putting her only niece into that kind of pain. No matter how old Harriet really was, or how much she’s already had to experience, it was hard to let her leave the room with Griphook.

“Is she going to be okay?”, Dudley asked. “Mr. Griphook said it’s going to hurt real worse for her than for us. Is that true?”

Stella glanced down at her son and embraced him, knowing that he will be in the same kind of pain, even if it’ll hurt less. 

“It’ll be okay, sweetums. Harriet will be okay, I will be okay, and you will be okay, too. Alright?” Dudley nodded and hugged his mother back, sniffling a bit.

While they were hugging, Harriet was following Griphook out of the room and through the halls of Gringotts. The way was a short one, but it felt like it took years to get to the Cleansing Room. Harriet was fidgeting at her still hand-me-down clothes as she looked around in the room they were now in.

It was big. A huge room with grey cement walls and one table in the middle of it. On the sides of the table stood five goblins in uniforms. They looked just like Griphook’s, only in white. Probably Goblin Healers, Harriet thought. Slowly she was getting really nervous. Sure, she’d experienced pain far worse than imaginable, but it went only so far as the Cruciatus Curse, and this was supposed to be ten times more painful. 

“Come on in, Heiress Potter-Black-Peverell-Gaunt-Slytherin-Gryffindor-Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw”, one of the goblins said and Harriet grimaced at the use of what she supposed was her full name with all the heir titles she had. She walked forward, wringing her hands nervously as she approached the hard table.

“Please strip all your clothes except your underwear and lay down on the table. It’ll make the process easier.” Harriet didn't feel too comfortable with it, but she complied nonetheless and laid on the table with only Dudley’s old underwear on. The goblin healer raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She supposed they all knew that Stella and Dudley had spells on them.

“I’ll tell you this once, and only once. We will remove all the blocks, spells and potions from you and cleanse you off the horcrux, but it will hurt. It will hurt more than you’ll ever be able to imagine. I’m not telling you that to scare you off, but to make sure you know what you let us do on you. If you’re ready, we’ll start.”

Harriet took a deep breath and gripped the edges of the table very tightly. “I’m ready.”

Two minutes later and she regretted ever saying anything. The pain started lightly at first, just tugs at her body, until it went over to migraine kind-of pains in her forehead and pain like she’d felt all her old childhood life already. The next level was the Cruciatus Curse level of pain, where she tried to stop herself from screaming by biting her lip, but when she bit through it nothing could stop her from screaming anymore. And the pain got worse. Imagine Voldemort and the whole Inner Circle all casting their most powerful Cruciatus Curses on you at the same time and you have the result. Harriet tried to write and claw at herself, but someone must have secured her body to the table so she couldn’t move. 

And then it was over. It felt like her whole life just went by, but really it had only been five minutes. Poor Aunt Stella and Dudley, having to feel that, too, Harriet thought. The only comfort she got was from knowing that they didn't have to expect those kind of pains she just did. 

She tried getting up, but felt the soreness in her body and laid back down. A second later she saw a potion flask hovering in front of her.

“It’s pain reliever”, the goblin healer said and Harriet nodded, snatching the flask and drinking the whole contents in one go. She didn’t notice the black stuff oozing from what was once her scar, or her hair and eyes changing colours so rapidly that you almost couldn’t see the different colours. 

“Thank you”, she said at last and the goblin healer nodded. 

“It’s our job. All your blocks, spells and potions have been removed, as well as the horcrux in your scar.” She gave Harriet a tissue so she could remove the ooze from her forehead. “Now, on the other side of the room, there is a mirror, of you want to see what you look like without the blocks, spells and potions, not to mention that vile scar horcrux. It’s a much greater difference than you’d think, Heiress Potter-Black-Peverell-Ga-“

“Just call me Potter-Black or Harriet, please. It’s shorter.”

“Alright, Heiress Potter-Black. If you’re ready, you can go look at yourself in the mirror.”

Harriet nodded slowly and sat up. She looked around and noticed a tall mirror standing just to the door’s right. Swallowing, she stood up and made her way over to stand in front of it before looking at herself and promptly jumping back in shock. Her hair settled on the colour light green. Harriet was confused. Why would her hair be green? Suddenly her hair turned yellow and she understood and relaxed, making it turn a middle coloured blue. Like, not light, but not dark, something in between. 

“My metamorphmagus skills were unlocked…”, she muttered and only now noticed that her eyes were the same shade as her hair. She shook her head. Could she change it right now? She concentrated on what Tonks had told her about being a metamorphmagus and thought hard about looking just like earlier. Well, as similar as she got. Her nose was slightly different, her cheek bones were a bit higher, and her hair wasn’t as unruly, and instead it was just wavy. And it worked. Sort of. She got her hair to turn black, but there were still some blue streaks in it, just as her green eyes still held a blue tinge to them. She’s got to practice that later. 

She turned around at the sound of the healer. “If you’re quite finished there, you can get dressed and follow Griphook out and to Mrs. And Mr. Dursley.”

Harriet nodded and set right to getting her oversized clothes back on. She noticed that she didn't look as skinny and pale as before. Sure, her six-year-old body was still terribly malnourished, but some of what it was earlier probably was from the potions and probably even glamours that didn't show on the test. 

She quickly finished getting dressed and jogged after Griphook, thinking about her name change. Being Harriet Potter was something she never wanted to be again. Don’t get her wrong, she liked being a Potter, and she definitely wanted to keep something of her parents, but being Harriet Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived wasn’t something she was about to repeat. No. For this time she had to be someone else entirely. She may tell people she really trusted the most, like Remus or Sirius if they wouldn’t go directly to Dumbledore, but for now…

“HARRIET!”, she heard Dudley and Stella shouting and sure enough she was enfulged in a hug by them. 

“Are you alright? Did it hurt badly? Why does your hair have blue streaks?”, Dudley started asking quickly and Harriet laughed.

“I’m alright, Dudley.” She grimaced. “Yes, it was really painful, but they gave meh that potion that made all the pain better! And I’m a meta- metamorphmagus!” She stumbled over the word purposefully to pretend to be new to it. “That means I can change how I look whenever I want! It and my eyes were blue when the process was finished, so I tried making it black and my eyes green again. Didn't really work completely, though…”

Dudley looked awed and about to say something, when Stella butted in. “Should I go next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh...new chapter? Harriet is a metamorphmagus! The colours of her hair for her mood are from google, so I wouldn't put a colour in the wrong mood or something. 
> 
> And I know, there was a lot of cliché stuff in the test, with Necromancy and Metamorphing, and all those blocks and stuff, but I also made it that Harriet's metamorph skills aren't perfect from the beginning, and even though she kind of did it with what she remembered from Tonks telling her, she didn't manage it completely. I didn't want to make Harriet a Mary Sue, so yeah...
> 
> Anyway, I've got two class tests in the next week and then one week holidays. So next week will definitely come one new chapter, and the week after maybe two, but I'm not sure how it's gonna work out.
> 
> And thank you for reading my story and for the what - 28? - kudos. You may not know it, but to author's it means so much to get that praise for it, even if it's only fanfiction. I mean, it's one thing to write a book or fanfic for fun because you've got nothing better to do, but it's another to actually have people acknowledge, read and praise as well as criticize it. 
> 
> Again, thanks for reading my story.
> 
> Please leave comments and if you like it, gove kudos.
> 
> Love, Sarah!


	11. xi. is it too much to ask?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dudley and Stella get cleansed. Harriet explains stuff to Griphook and Dudley...kind of.

Dudley looked awed and about to say something, when Stella butted in. “Should I go next?”

“No!”, Dudley said loudly. He knew that it would hurt, didn’t want his mother subjected to that. “I’ll go first!”, he said determinedly.

Stella looked shocked. “But why? Dudley, you know that it’ll hurt, right? Do you really want to go first?”

“Yes, Mum! I’m a big boy, I can do that! I’ll go first!”

Stella still looked like she wanted to protest, but Harriet came in between. “Aunt Stella. He’ll have to go eventually, so why not let him go first? Even if you go first, you can’t prevent him from having to go eventually.”

Stella nodded defeatedly. She knew that her niece was right. “Alright...”

She flung her arms around Dudley and hugged him as tightly as motherly possible, before stepping back and holding him by his shoulders. “You be careful, alright? It’ll hurt, but I believe in you. You’re a big boy, you can do it.” She wiped her eyes with her hand and Dudley did too, but he nodded and hugged his mother.

“I’ll be okay, Mummy! I promise!”

When Dudley left, Stella broke down in sobs. Her little boy went first, just to make sure she wouldn’t hurt first. Harriet moved forward and hugged her.

“It will be okay, Auntie. I’m sure of it. And besides, it may hurt, but after it’s done he’ll be completely great! No blocks or anything on him. Remember what those compulsions did to him? They made him hate work! He’d be so horrible at school with that spell. And then the hate towards magic and preference for violence and tantrum-throwing. Why do you think so many kids in the neighbourhood were always beaten up?”

Stella gaped at Harriet at that. “That was Dudley? Just because all those compulsions Dudley beat up children younger than him and blamed it on you? And you’re right, he would be a horrible student.”

Dudley was back after only half an hour and instantly ran up to Stella, hugging her almost to death. “It hurt so much, Mummy!”, he sobbed into her dress. 

Stella hugged him back just as fiercely. “But it’s over now, Duddykins. Everything’s alright again, yes?” Dudley nodded violently, and Stella let go of her son. “Good. Then I’ll go to get cleansed now. See you later, Duddykins, Yetti!”

Dudley cried out in protest as he watched his mother leave with Griphook, but Harriet only stood there, gaping after Stella. Nobody had ever called her Yetti. Always Harriet, Harry, Harriet Potter, Potter, or the Girl-Who Lived, not to mention the Woman-Who-Won. And then there was also Mrs. Weasley, Professor Weasley and all those other titles and names she’s got. 

But at one name, and she only remembered it now, she grimaced in disgust. Ron had always called her Harry-Jelly. And she liked it. 

“She- she called me Yetti…”, she whispered in disbelief. 

Dudley turned around. “What?”

“Aunt Stella. She called me Yetti. Nobody has ever called me that, Dudley…”, she said, still gaping at the door.

Dudley ran forward and threw himself at Harriet, clutching on his old clothes that he’d outgrown and now hung loosely on Harriet’s small frame. 

“I’m sorry, Ha- Yetti. I’m so sorry for beating you up so often and always blaming everything on you!”, Dudley cried, realising what he had done.

“It’s okay, Dudley. That wasn’t you. That was the potions and spells that that Dumbledore guy put in and on you. Really, it’s alright. I forgive you”, Harriet said, also hugging Dudley back.

It really wasn’t every day that you travel back to your six-year-old self to find yourself with your hateful family that really isn’t all that hateful, after all. So, after finding out the truth, Harriet wants to forgive them and make the best of her current life. Meaning, changing her name and making sure Dumbledore knows that he’s messed up.

When Stella came back in after Griphook, Dudley and Harriet were already impatiently sitting and waiting at the table. Dudley really wanted to know what was up with Harriet and why her name was Weasley, and Harriet just wanted to finally change her name and put her past as Harriet Jamila Potter-Weasley behind her. 

“Mummy!”, Dudley cried as he flung himself at Stella, hugging her so close Harriet thought he might just suffocate her.

“Hey, sweetie. Hey Yetti.” 

“Did it hurt bad, Mummy?”, Dudley asked and Stella shook her head. 

“Only a little bit.” That was a lie, but how do you tell a six-year-old how bad it hurt?

“Good!”, Dudley said and pulled her to the table. “Now I want to know why Harriet is called Harriet Weasley!”

“I think I’d like to know that as well”, Griphook stated. “I know that you are not as old as you say you are, Miss Potter-Black, but I don’t know why that is.” He raised an eyebrow and sat down at the table again. “So if you would care to elaborate?”

Harriet was nervous, so she just burst out with it. “I’m from the future. Aunt Stella knows already, I’ve told her today. It only did happen today, actually. I’ve actually lived my life already, 36 years of it, and I thought it was great, but turns out it was all a huge lie.”

Griphook raised an eyebrow, but that was really the only sign for him being surprised about it. Stella knew some things already, but not everything. And Dudley…

“You’re 36?!” Dudley turned to Stella. “How old are you, Mummy?”

Stella smiled amusedly, but even she was shocked. “I’m 28 year old, sweetums.”

Dudley turned back to Harriet. “You’re older than Mummy!” He deflated a little. “But why did Mr. Griphook call you Mrs. Weasley?”

Harriet drew a shaky breath before continuing. “I was married. I married at 18 years old, barely out of school, but everyone wished for it, and I just wanted to meet expectations. I had friends, sure, and my name made me famous in the magical world, but that would stop whenever I had my own opinions. 

So I learnt to adapt to the others and just do what they expect me to do. Be Harriet Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, the person killing the Dark Lord Voldemort, the person marrying into the Light Weasley family, the person with mediocre grades, the person who always forgave everyone for believing rumours. I married Ronald Weasley, had three kids with him, I became a teacher at Hogwarts, but then I was killed by a 12-year-old! A mass murderer tried to kill me since I was a year old, and a 12-year-old managed to do it! And then I die, I land somewhere between Life and Death. There was Death’s daughter telling me how much I fu- managed to pull myself down. 

I found out that my mother had a sister who was killed by a tree on Hogwarts grounds, and that my dad had a sister too, who died from the same tree! The tree that was planted illegally, and the tree that almost killed so many children! I found out that my husband dosed me with love potions, that he cheated on me with four other women, one of whom was probably my only real friend and got raped by him! 

And I’m sick of it! I’m sick of my life, sick of being Harriet Jamila Potter! Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents, and everyone else, but…I don’t think I could cope knowing that I’d have to be the Wizarding World’s saviour again, knowing that I’d have to be on guard every time Dumbledore could be spying on me or what I’m doing! If I continue being Harriet, I’ll never be able to live a peaceful life. I just want to have a childhood for once, find wonderful friends that aren’t being paid with my own money, fall if love with a person that didn't dose me with potions! I just want to have life without a senile Headmaster stalking me and spelling potions and blocks on me! Is that really too much to ask?!”

Harriet hadn’t even realised that she was yelling at the goblin, her basically-aunt and basically-cousin until she was finished with her rant. She was panting and sat back down with a deep sigh escaping her lips.

“Is it really too much to ask…?”, she whispered to nobody in particular, but to everyone at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya guys and sorry for not updating. This chapter has been finished for a few days now, I just didn't have time to publish it lol. 
> 
> Anywayyyyy, how do you guys like it? I don't have that much to say in this chapter, aside from...MY PARENTS ARE SO F-ING ANNOYING!!!!
> 
> Yeah, that's all.
> 
> I LOVE Y'ALL!
> 
> I hope you liked it and yeah...
> 
> Love, Sarah


	12. xii. hey, where's your scar?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet explains more and changes her name.

“Is it really too much to ask…?”, she whispered to nobody in particular, but to everyone at the same time.

Griphook, Stella and Dudley didn’t know what to say. Griphook had met time travellers before, but it was only a few who didn’t travel back more than a day and of course they didn’t die before traveling back in time. But even those time travellers hadn’t had such a bad life. Mostly it was people that wanted more time to correct a financial mistake or save someone’s life. But Harriet Potter was a whole other story.

Stella was shocked that her niece had had such a bad life. She knew that Harriet had travelled back in time, that she’d died before going back and a few things about her previous life. What she didn’t know, however, was that Harriet was older than her, by almost a decade even. But even so, she hadn’t expected Harriet to be the kind to marry. But seeing it like that, being famous for something you can’t even remember doing anything for, and then being used as a weapon or just a saviour that does and leaves everything to others when the villain is dead. That, she could kind of see, since she’s watched many movies with that storyline before. But love potions, compulsion charms, hate potion, loyalty spells, a horcrux (whatever that was supposed to be) and all that money Harriet didn’t even know about...that were things that weren’t exactly displayed in movies.

And Dudley...he may only be six years old, but he was way smarter than people gave him credit for. He was smart, but before they removed the blocks, or before Harriet came back in time, he just hadn’t had the motivation or want to study. And even so, with his smartness, he didn’t get all that great marks at school. It was more like, he could do it without problem if he wanted to, but before his life got turned around, he just didn’t want to. So now, he sat in his seat at the table in Griphook’s office at Gringotts Wizarding Bank and thought about what he had just heard.

He heard that people died, and that Harriet came from the future, that stood out from all the other things. Many people died, some even people that Harriet liked and was friends with. She had two best friends and married one of them, called Ron Weasley, but he turned out to be giving her love potions and cheating on her with other women. He even raped Harriet’s other friend, who most likely really was her friend. The headmaster of that school, Dumble-something, turned out to be a manipulator, who only wanted Harriet as a weapon to destroy a villain. 

Harriet became a teacher and got killed by a 12-year-old, apparently. Probably even while her back was turned, because from what he heard, that Voldy-villain tried to kill her about ten times and she always got away and survived. He couldn’t imagine Harriet not surviving a 12-year-old’s murder attempt unless her back was turned. And as a teacher, having to write really much on the board, her back was turned most of the time.

But one other thing he remembered about double as clearly as the others.

“You’re older than Mum?”

Stella laughed out loud, Harriet snorted, and even Griphook had a toothy grin on his face. Dudley saw and heard this and turned red. “I mean-“

“It’s okay, Dud. I don’t mind”, Harriet said. “But to answer your question, yes, I am older than Aunt Stella. But is that really all you remember from what I just said?”

Dudley quickly shook his head. Harriet knew that it wasn’t all he remembered, but she found it funny that that was the first thing he’d asked. 

“No, it wasn’t. I remember...many people dying. You married and became a teacher...” And so Dudley counted up all the things he remembered, much to Stella’s surprise, who hadn’t expected her son to remember that much. Probably another thing the spells and blocks had prevented. They prevented him from raising to his full potential and be the best person he can be. Those spells made her Duddykins the worst any person could possibly be. Now that she thought about it, from what Harriet had told her about her previous childhood and Dudley’s behaviour, she wouldn’t be surprised if the Dudley from that other world killed a child five years younger than him just because he could. It also wouldn’t surprise her if Vernon and her didn’t believe them and done anything they could to get Dudley out of trouble.

But that time was over now. She knew that Vernon was probably a lost cause, so — when Harriet will have changed her name — they’ll have to think of a way to explain the new girl there. Harriet didn't want to be Harriet anymore, so she’d need new looks as well, which will work out well with her being a metamorphmagus.

“Yeah, and I remember you saying that that Dumble-person is stalking you- hey, where’s your scar?”, Dudley suddenly remarked, looking right at Harriet’s forehead. Harriet looked at Dudley in shock and lifted her hand slowly to touch the spot she knew her scar was. Only that there wasn’t a scar anymore. She traced her forehead, but only came upon smooth skin. No cut, no scar, nothing to signalise that there ever was a scar. 

“I-It’s gone!”, Harriet breathed out and Stella snapped out of her thoughts to look at Harriet. 

“What is, Yetti?”, she asked.

“My scar. It’s gone! The cleansing got rid of it!” Harriet slowly started smiling, before a fully-blown grin made its way onto her face. “It’s wonderful! I’m officially not the Girl-Who-Lived anymore! Even if people saw me now and thought I looked so much like my Dad, they’d never think that I’m Harriet Potter because I don’t have the scar that everyone knows about!”

Stella chuckled and moved forward to hug Harriet. “That’s wonderful, Harriet. But I still remember you saying that you wanted to change your name. If you don’t, you’ll show up as Harriet Potter at Hogwarts. And you don’t want that, do you?”

Harriet nodded. “Yeah. I’m totally and utterly sick of being Harriet Potter! I still love my parents, but I don’t really want to look like my father with my mother’s eyes anymore. Maybe…” Harriet scrunched up her nose and concentrated really hard on a new look. It took a while, but slowly Harriet’s hair turned longer, going down to her waist, and wavy instead of only going to her chest and being as unruly as ever. Adding to that it turned red. Her eyes turned a darker shade of green, which held specks of the hazel brown she’d seen on pictures of her father so often. Lastly, about a minute later, Harriet’s hair got a few black highlights. Her skin turned a bit darker, too, and her cheekbones got a bit less sharp.

Then she relaxed and looked at Stella with her new look. “That’s my new look. I still look like my parents, though now more like my mother, with the red hair and green eyes, but also like my father, with the black highlights in my hair and brown in my eyes. Also, I made the green in them darker, so people won’t instantly associate them with my Mom. How is it, Aunt Stella?”

Stella looked at Harriet and smiled widely. “If I didn't know who you are, I’d just say that your red hair looks so beautiful with those black highlights and those eyes look so perfect on you. It all fits together perfectly. You look wonderful, sweetheart.”

“It looks so cool, Yetti!”, Dudley exclaimed. “But what about your name?”

“Thanks, Dudley”, Harriet said smiling, before thinking of a new name. 

“I already thought about first names a lot. My first name’s gonna be Cynthia. I don’t even really know why, other than I love that name so much. But I want more names. Maybe a second and third, too. Cynthia…Cynthia Sarah Lily. I remember the cousin of Hermione’s being called Sarah, and she was always so nice to me, and I also want to keep something of my parents in my name, so Lily. Nobody’s gonna think much on it. It’s a common name, anyway. 

But last names…I can’t exactly go around as a Potter-Black. That would expose me immediately. Gaunt wouldn’t be a good idea either, seeing as they descend from Salazar Slytherin. Also, I’d wake the interest of Voldemort, probably. The Hogwarts founders would be too noticeable as well. Just imagine the uproar if I get called up as Cynthia Gryffindor or something. That only leaves Peverell, really. That family died out centuries ago, so who’s even gonna know about them anymore? Also, I wouldn’t be lying, because the name would really show up on my family tree. The name would even give me the right to demand the Invisibility Cloak back…”

“Invisibility Cloak?”, Dudley asked.

“Oh yeah. We’ll buy the Tales of Beedle the Bard. It’s a book full of wizarding fairy tales. There’s one about the Deathly Hallows in it, but that’s not actually a tale.”

They heard someone clear their throat and turned to look at Griphook. “Heiress Peverell” He grinned. “You will have to fill out a form to register the name change so that it’ll show up on any blood or inheritance test you take.” He handed her a familiar black quill. 

Harriet raised her eyebrows. “A blood quill?”

“It’s a standard procedure. And they are different from the ones witches and wizards create. They work just like you know it, but it won’t leave any scars on your skin.”

Harriet nodded and took the quill before taking the form and reading:

###### Name Changing Form:

#### Old Name:

 **Harriet Jamila Potter**  


#### New Name:

**Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell**

****

**This document officially declares the name change of Harriet Jamila Potter to Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell . The new name with show up on all official documents, including Blood and Inheritance Tests.**

****

That was all that was on the parchment, so Harriet took the quill and quickly wrote down her new name on both of the lines for the new name.

And just like that, Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell was born, while a glass orb in the Department of Mysteries shattered into a million tiny little pieces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had really much fun writing this. And THANK YOU SO MUCH for your comments and kudos and stuff! You don't know how much this means to me!
> 
> Anyway...thank you. Next chapter is in the works and it'll still take a while until they arrive back at Privet Drive because the next chapter is still completely in Gringotts lol.
> 
> I think that's all.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Love, Sarah


	13. xiii. what happened to potter manor?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cynthia asks questions and thinks about life.

And just like that, Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell was born, while a glass orb in the Department of Mysteries shattered into a million tiny little pieces.

The rest of what happened in Gringotts wasn’t that important, but Cynthia did have a question for Griphook.

“Uh…Griphook? When I was…well, dead…I noticed something weird. When I first got to that place, I met Tom Riddle. While talking to him I hated Dumbledore and continued insulting him and laughing. But when talking to Línnea — Death’s daughter — a few minutes later, I was so defensive of him again. Do you know why that is? I had all those potions and spells on me, why would I hate Dumbledore in there? But why would I defend him only a few minutes later?”

Griphook was caught off guard by that question, Stella was confused and Dudley had a blank look on his face, probably trying to decipher what his cousin just said.

“Well…”, Griphook said. “I cannot really answer that question, but I have a theory as to what might have happened. It may just be that the spells and potions don’t work while you are dead, so while talking to Mr. Riddle, they thought you were dead. But when Death’s daughter appeared, they might have noticed that you weren’t dead, but just somewhere in-between, so they started working properly again.”

Cynthia looked disbelieving. “Really? That’s it? The spells and potions just had to figure out if they worked where I was?”

“I am not sure, but it may be that, Heiress Peverell.”

Cynthia nodded. “Now about the vaults and rings…?”, she asked.

“Ah, yes. You can access your trust vault. But all the others, you will have to wait until you turn 11.”

Suddenly, Cynthia had a new question. “Why isn’t there a Potter vault?”

Griphook looked at her. “Because the contents were all put into your trust vault.”

“So, I know from my previous life that there was only money in it. So where’s the other stuff from the Potter vault?”

Griphook raised an eyebrow. “On the right side there is a large door. If you go through it, you will face the contents of the Potter Family vault. The money currently in your trust vault is just that, your trust fund. If you want or need anymore, you will have to go through that door.”

“Ok, thank you. And what about Potter Manor? Why isn’t it listed with the accessible properties?”

“That is because it was destroyed in a Death Eater attack. Your grandparents died a few weeks previously of Dragon Pox, but the Death Eater’s didn't know that, so they set the Manor on fire. That’s why it isn’t on the list. It doesn’t exist anymore, along with any other Potter properties. The cottage in Godric’s Hollow is still accessible, but the Ministry claimed it as a memorial.”

Cynthia sighed and laid back in the chair. “Alright. But why can I access all the other properties? Don’t people live in there anymore?”

“Of course. Some, like Gryffindor Castle or the Gaunt Shack are completely abandoned, but the others just mean that you can enter them without the wards alerting anyone. It would be family entering the wards, thus not alerting the wards.”

“That is good to know. Now, I have something else to tell you.”

Griphook leaned forward. “My scar wasn’t the only horcrux there currently is.”

Griphook leaned back as his eyes grew wide. “What do you mean, Heiress Peverell?”

“I mean to tell you that there are currently six more horcruxes out there. I know the location of each, and I know that one of them currently resides in Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault here at Gringotts.”

“So you mean to tell me that Bellatrix Lestrange has put one of Tom Riddle’s horcruxes into her Gringotts vault? Tell me what it is, Heiress Peverell.”

Griphook’s hard and cold voice didn't faze Cynthia not one bit, as she wouldn’t have reacted any different, had she been in Griphook’s shoes right now.

“It is Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup. But Bellatrix enchanted everything with the Gemini Curse, causing everything you touch to multiply.”

“Thank you.” He turned to the door and yelled something in Gobbledygook to one of the goblins guarding it. The goblin in question’s eyes grew wide as saucers as he scurried out the room as fast as possible. Griphook turned back to them.

“Now, anything else I can assist you with, Heiress Peverell? Mrs. Dursley, Mr. Dursley?”

Cynthia nodded, while Stella and Dudley shook their heads.

“No questions anymore, Griphook. But I would like to visit my Trust Vault if it’s no trouble.”

Griphook grinned and nodded. “It is no trouble, Heiress Peverell. Just follow me out.”

So Cynthia, Stella and Dudley followed Griphook out of the office, the latter two wondering how they’d get to the vaults. Because as far as they had seen while coming in, there were many office doors and another big one at the end of the main hall, probably leading to the Goblin Nation.

But that wasn’t exactly true. The Goblin Nation being in that direction wasn’t too far off, but as they were walking through that exact door, Stella and Dudley knew that it wasn’t it.

They came to a small cart barely able to hold three people, not to mention the four that they had to fit right now. But with Dudley, Cynthia and Griphook being as small as they were, it worked out quite well. And Cynthia also remembered her trip to Gringotts with Hagrid when she was living her old life.

They sat in the cart and waited for Griphook to join them. Stella clutched the cart and Dudley’s hand as if her life depended on it — which it did if you thought about it — but Cynthia put a hand on Stella’s shoulder.

“It’ll be okay, Aunt Petuni- uh, Stella. I did that before, it’s like riding on a rollercoaster. And besides, I think it’s warded to prevent people from falling out.”

“That is correct, Heiress Peverell”, Griphook grunted as he entered the cart as well.

Cynthia thought about how much her life had already changed as the cart started forwards at a very fast pace. Dudley was screaming, in fear at first, but now in pure joy, while Petu- Stella, Cynthia reminded herself, held onto the cart for dear life.

Cynthia honestly would never have expected that her life would’ve turned out like this. If anyone in her old time had told her that she would die, go back in time, change her name and find out the things she did, she’d send them straight to St. Mungos for brain damage.

She still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that Dudley and Petunia- Stella, she told herself again, weren’t actually opposed to magic, but that is was all Dumbledore’s doing. She never would’ve thought. She did have her doubts about Dumbledore every now and then in her life as Harriet, but not too long after she told the others about it, she already forgot about it, ranting about his achievements and how much he did for her.

And honestly, it was still really hard to adapt to Stella’s and Dudley’s new style and apparent hobby of hugging her. Stella was a bit easier to get used to, because she never really hit her or anything, but it was still an unknown sensation that would take a while to get used to. Dudley would take longer because he actually beat her. She didn't flinch when he moved to hug her, mostly because she knew that the spells were down, but every time he did, there was some tiny voice telling her to move away, to protect herself.

And the names…her own new name wouldn’t take too long to adapt to. Maybe Dudley and Pe- Stella would have some problems getting used to it, but she was already kinda used to it. But Stella would be harder, as all she knew was Aunt Petunia, the sister of her mother and the cruel person that married Uncle Vernon.

But now she knew better. Now she knew that she wasn’t actually Petunia Evans-Dursley, but more like Stella Black-Dursley, though that would soon change as well, if Vernon’s behaviour was anything to go by.

When that point came up, Cynthia started. This was interesting, too. How would Vernon react to the ‘Ungrateful Little Freak’ finally being gone? Or would he even notice Harriet’s disappearance when he saw Cynthia? She looked completely different now, which would also take a bit to get used to whenever she looked in the mirror. However she’d probably start at seeing herself anyway, since she was in her six-year-old body.

And all the blocks and spells were somewhat expected, but the things it blocked and did to her…she never even would’ve expected that, even from someone like Albus Dumbledore. She wondered if other people had spells on them as well. In her life as Harriet, Remus had rarely contacted her. Did he have spells to make him ignore her on himself? And were spells the reason for Sirius’ recklessness? Sure, the man was a Gryffindor through and through, but after Azkaban, you would expect someone to be just a tab more careful.

She also wondered why she’d never seen the door in her trust vault leading to the Potter Family fortune, if it had always been there. She really had to look into that part. And she also had to look into a way to get her Invisibility Cloak back.

“Hey Griphook? Is there any way to get my Invisibility Cloak? Dumbledore currently has it, and it’s probably full of tracking charms and compulsions.”

Griphook nodded. “There is, Heiress Peverell. You are the Mistress of Death. Oh don’t look at me like that, did that girl, whatever her name was, not tell you that? Goblins can sense that. We were alive when the Peverell brothers were, and they trusted us with more information that one would believe.”

“So…how do I get it back?”

“You just have to think of the Hallow you want to have at the moment and it shall appear.”

Shouldn’t be too hard, Cynthia thought as she concentrated on willing the Cloak into her hands. And not a second later she was able to feel the silky watery material of the Invisibility Cloak. She grinned and turned to Griphook.

“If the Resurrection Stone happened to be hefted together with a ring, would the ring appear as well, or just the stone?”

Griphook raised an eyebrow. “That depends on what kind of ring we are talking about, Heiress Peverell.”

“The Gaunt Lordship Ring”, Cynthia said and Griphook’s eyes grew wide at the implied message that Voldemort currently held that ring.

“In that case, it will come to you as well, seeing as you are the rightful Heiress. It won’t accept you just yet, as it is the Lordship ring and you are still just the Heiress, but it will know that you are the future Lady.”

Cynthia nodded, but didn't think of the ring just yet. As much as she wanted the horcrux destroyed, sacrificing her hands in the process wouldn’t do good for her future plans.

Where she was with future plans, there was much they still had to do. They had to figure out what to do with Harriet Potter and what to tell Vernon about Cynthia. They had to enrol her into school as Cynthia Peverell and figure out what to do about Sirius and Remus. She couldn’t just let Sirius rot in Azkaban for a long seven more years, or afford Remus living that horrible life without a proper job until her third year. She had to do something, but she didn't know how to do it without arousing suspicion.

And then there was still Potter Manor. Privet Drive belonged to Vernon, so if there was anything he’d do, it was throwing them out if he got wind of Stella’s and Dudley’s changes. And in case he got suspicious of Cynthia, they had somewhere to go if Vernon lashed out. And the last thing was that Stella wanted to divorce Vernon anyway, knowing exactly was he’s done, and made her do. And knowing him, he wasn’t going to just let her continue living in his house while not even being married anymore. She may just have to visit Potter Manor and see in what state it’s in and how they could build it up again so it’s inhabitable again.

Cynthia sighed as the wind blew her hair back while the cart continued going downwards. They had so much to do before Hogwarts, but how would they do it, and how hard would it be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey guys! Finally another chapter up! Sorry that it took me so long, but I think (not sure) it's still in the one week time range. Anyway, I'm not too happy with the start of the chapter. It answers many questions I had while rereading my previous chapters, but I don't really like how it's written, if you know what I mean?
> 
> The second part is a bit better and it's a longer chapter than usual. I don't really have time to write often because of school (11th grade is killing me and it's only two months into the year), but I will try.
> 
> Right now I don't have that much motivation to keep writing. Well, that's wrong. I DO have the motivation, I just have a few problems continuing to write because I'm just so excited for them to come back to Privet Drive, and for Vernon's reaction (don't worry, it won't be that bad) and for Dudley and Cynthia to finally get to Hogwarts! But as that will take a few million more chapters (just a guess), it will still take a while.
> 
> I mean, I just got, what - about 8 chapters? - into just the Gringott's visit, and I'm not even done yet.
> 
> By the way, I don't know what to do with Sirius yet, or with Remus or whatever, but I'll work on it. And to add to that, does anyone have an idea as to what to tell Vernon about Cynthia? I have no idea what to tell him, honestly.
> 
> I publish this book on Wattpad, ff.net, AO3 and Quotev, so yeah...I got some comments about them getting used to the situation too quickly and that Cynthia being a Peverell irks them a bit, but yeah, you'll have to live with it lol. But the getting-used-to-thing is something I've adjusted a bit.
> 
> I hope you liked it, if so, please comment and kudos. If not, comment anyway.


	14. xiv. the door is a little small, isn't it?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cynthia, Stella and Dudley go into Cynthia's trust vault!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I've got some comments concerning a first year to fire a Killing Curse, and honestly? That's correct. How would a first year Hufflepuff with muggle heritage be able to feel such a hatred towards Harriet, that he'd just fire the Killing Curse as if he's done it millions of times? Seriously, in any other fanfic that would be the first thing I'd have noticed, but in my own, I just make the mistakes I see in other fanfictions. So, yeah...the Killing Curse thing...just imagine that that Michael Smythe (was that even his name lol I forgot) was determined to learn everything about magic he could, so he read and heard all about Harriet, of course, and he hates her. And also imagine that you don't really HAVE to MEAN it, but just HATE the person you curse. I'll have to remember that for future references, though, but just keep in mind that this is a fanfiction, I didn't notice the mistake until it got pointed out, I made a...semi-reasonable excuse for it and I'm gonna use that as fact in this story. 
> 
> Anyway, let's get on with the chapter!

Cynthia sighed as the wind blew her hair back while the cart continued going downwards. They had so much to do before Hogwarts, but how would they do it, and how hard would it be?

As she left her thoughts to see where they were, she realised that her trust vault was further away than she thought. As Harriet, the ride was far shorter, she thought. But maybe it was just because she had been so amazed by it all and didn't realise how long it took.

After a few more minutes the cart finally slowed down in from of Vault Number 687.

Griphook hopped out of it and held his hands out. “Lamp, please.”

Cynthia handed it to him since Stella was too busy calming down and Dudley had a huge grin on his face, looking around and bouncing on his heels.

“Can we do that again, Mum? Pleaaaaaaase?”, he asked and Stella laughed dryly. “Yes, Dudley. We’ll do that again when we go back up.”

“Key, please”, Griphook said and Cynthia stopped short as she swore. She knew she had forgotten something.

“Uh…in my — y’know — past life, Hagrid had my vault key, so…”, Cynthia said, shifting slightly under Griphook’s gaze.

He sighed. “Oh well. We can’t change that now. I can open the vault for now, and later we’ll make you a new key, Heiress Peverell.”

Cynthia breathed a sigh of relief. She’d almost thought she wouldn’t be able to open her vault now. “Thank you, Griphook.”

Griphook merely nodded as he ran a bony finger down the side of the door.

“Are you able to do that for all the vaults?”, Stella suddenly asked. “Or is it just for some specific ones?”

Now that she thought about it, Cynthia found that a really good question. She knew from not so good experience that Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault had that system, and that vault 713 had as well, and now her trust vault too, but that was basically all she knew.

“No. This Touch-And-Open System does not work for all vaults”, Griphook said as if it was obvious. “Normal vaults only have a Key System, the High-Security vaults have Key and Touch System, meaning that only goblins and , while the ones with extremely High-Security have no Key System. They only open to the touch of any person with access to it, and they have a dragon guarding them.”

“A dragon?! Woah!”, Dudley said wide-eyed, but Griphook ignored him as they all watched the door click and spring open.

They all looked inside and got wide eyes. Well, not Cynthia, since she’d seen that before, but Dudley and Stella had certainly never seen so much money in one go.

“Are you a millionaire?!”, Dudley exclaimed, making Stella and Cynthia laugh, while Griphook grinned and said, “Heiress Peverell is not a millionaire, so to speak. If she only had this one vault, she’d already be a billionaire by now, but with all the others she has access to…she can’t take more than 100 galleons a year out of the others she has access to, but altogether I’d say she is a multibillionaire at the very least.”

Dudley was wide-eyed and even Stella fought to keep her mouth closed. Sure, she’s seen the number on the Inheritance Test, but hearing and seeing it is just another thing. And even Cynthia was gobsmacked. She had expected to have much gold, or to be a millionaire or something, but a billionaire just with a single trust vault was beyond even her imagination.

And as they entered the vault, Stella eyes bulged out and Dudley’s mouth dropped open. Cynthia had seen it all already, but as she had been a bit too occupied with the wonders of magic before to realise just how much money was in her vault, the sheer size of the gold towers very nearly overwhelmed her. Add to that the fact that Cynthia was much smaller than Harriet had been when she’d seen that part of her fortune, and it makes it even more impressive.

“I honestly didn't expect this…”, Cynthia muttered, but she grinned. She looked around in search for the door that was supposed to lead her to the Potter Family fortune, but she didn't see it. Sighing, she walked forward and around the gold and looked behind it. And sure enough, there was a small door, maybe big enough to fit a house elf, right in front of her.

“Er, Griphook? This door is a little small, isn’t it?”

Griphook rolled his eyes, though Cynthia couldn’t see that. “As it is, yes. But it will adjust its size to the person intending to go through it. But for it to adjust to your size, you will have to be permitted to enter the next vault. As such, the door would not adjust to Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, because the Potter Family didn't think they would ever need to go in there.”

Cynthia nodded. That made more sense than expected. I certainly made sense that, if Cynthia had only been permitted to enter the Potter Vault at age 17, the door wouldn’t have adjusted for her. Though, would it have? Mentally and magically, she was still 36 years old, so maybe the door would have recognised her magic and adjusted for her mental and magical age, even though she was physically still 30 years younger.

“Alright…could I give Aunt Pet- Stella and Dudley permission now so they could enter with me, or would it have to be official and signed for it to be valid?”

Griphook contemplated that for a second. “I do not know for sure, Heiress Peverell…but I assume that you could permit them to enter this once and make it official later.”

“What would happen, were they to try entering, but it wouldn’t adjust?”

Griphook shrugged. “Either nothing at all or, if they were too close to the door, it would throw them back a few feet.”

Stella’s eyes widened in alarm for a moment, and Griphook saw that. “Do not worry, Mrs. Dursley. It will not hurt if you don’t mean any ill intent. Though if you happen to do…” He grinned nastily in the end, making Stella gulp nervously. She sure didn't have any ill intent towards the Potter fortune, but still.

“Does this trust vault not have that protection at the door?”, she asked.

“No. It has a Key System and a Touch and Open System. If you don’t have the key, or your touch is not able to open the vault…” Once again, he left the sentence with a grin.

While they talked, Cynthia had looked around the vault a bit more to get a bit of a general outlook of it before standing on the point she started. “All right. I permit Dudley and Stella Dursley to enter the Potter Family Vault”, she said confidently, her hand raised.

There was a short glow before it was gone again.

Griphook raised an eyebrow. “I…guess you have already made it official by stating permission for them to enter.”

“I guess I did”, Cynthia said before turning to the door and walking a few steps towards it.

Her eyes widened as the door became bigger and bigger with each step that she took, and soon was it big enough to fit her through it.

Holding her head high, she walked through the door and stood at the side, watching Stella and Dudley walk through as well. She hadn’t looked at the contents of the vault yet, but judging by Dudley’s not-so-subtle gasp, it was huge.

Cynthia took a deep breath, knowing that she would now be looking at her parents’ and grandparents’ fortune, and turned around.


	15. xv. can you even call him a man?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cynthia, Stella and Dudley look into the Potter vault and talk to portraits.

Cynthia took a deep breath, knowing that she would now be looking at her parents’ and grandparents’ fortune, and turned around.

Cynthia gasped aloud and had her mouth hanging open and her eyes bulging out at what was in the vault. Sure, it was a fair bit of money, which was a real understatement, but there were also dozens of sleeping portraits and jewellery and books and clothes and just…everything. She honestly couldn’t have imagined having all that if she tried. She knew she had the 100 billion galleons in her trust vault alone, but then there were also the 264 and a half billion galleons in the other vaults combined. And although she did not have access to all the galleons in the vaults that still have family members able to access it, it was still a huge fortune. She really was a multibillionaire alone with her trust fund. All the vaults combined have just over double the amount of galleons that currently reside in her trust vault. So basically, she currently had access to almost 400 billion galleons. And that wasn’t even counting the Potter vault.

“Oh my God!”, Cynthia breathed. “That’s so much, Griphook!” She turned to the goblin to see him grinning, though it was a bit strained by concealed awe. “How much gold is in this vault?”

Griphook raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. “I do not know the exact amount, but I can guess. Your great-grandparents never really used much of the money in the vault for things they just wanted to have. They much rather just bought stuff they really needed the most. Your grandparents were the same, though they spoiled your father quite a lot with their fortune. Add to that the money your grandfather made with his Sleakeazy’s Hair Potion and it comes to quite a few hundred billion. But your father, he donated a quite large amount of money to the Order of the Phoenix-“ Cynthia scowled. “-, probably about one billion. Not a particularly great loss, but over time it would’ve certainly become a problem.” He raised his other eyebrow. “I would guess that this vault currently contains about 500 billion galleons, though I cannot be sure until I can confirm or deny that.”

With each sentence, Cynthia’s and also Stella’s eyes grew wider and wider while Dudley tried to make sense of what his favourite goblin just said. 

“So you mean”, Dudley started after a few minutes of nobody saying anything, “that Har- Cynthia has more money in this vault than in the other vaults combined?”

Stella seemed impressed by Dudley’s ability to put the pieces together. She had thought that, with all the spells and blocks, Dudley would have to learn everything anew, so that he’d be able to absorb and understand it as he would have if he never had those spells in the first place. 

“That is true, Mr. Dursley. I can say that much, though I am not certain of the exact amount. We will have to look into the Potter files to see the exact number.” He paused and looked at something to his left before turning to Cynthia. “The portraits are starting to wake. They know that someone is in here, so they wake to talk to them.” 

Dudley’s eyes lit up and even Cynthia couldn’t conceal her excitement. “Portraits? You mean, real portraits with talking people in it?”, Dudley asked, vibrating with excitement. 

Griphook rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mr. Dursley. Real portraits with talking people. But they are not real people talking. They are people who had moving portraits made of them and when they died, their soul got absorbed by the portrait. Or, no…not their soul, but…their spirit, if you will. Soul Magic is the Darkest magic. Their spirit got absorbed by the portraits, so now they speak to you with their character traits as their were when they were alive.”

“That’s so cool! Let’s go, Mum and Harriet!”, Dudley said, forgetting for a moment that his magical cousin’s name wasn’t Harriet anymore as he ran towards where Griphook was looking earlier.

—

“Hello!”, Dudley said cheerfully to a portrait of a woman with very dark brown hair, looking to be almost pure black. The woman slowly awoke and looked around before spotting Dudley. 

“Hello”, she said. “I am Dorea Melania Potter née Black, who are you?” She raised an eyebrow. “You do not look like a Potter to me.” 

Cynthia and Stella weren’t there yet, but Dudley was just so excited.

“I’m Dudley Dursley! And I’m not a Potter, my cousin is! She and my Mum are coming right now!”

Dorea smiled. “That’s great, Dudley.”

“Dudley! Wait for us!”, they both heard Cynthia’s voice call out suddenly. She came running to them and stood next to Dudley to look at Dorea — not that she and the portrait knew who the other was. But Cynthia was so excited that her metamorphmagus powers went haywire and made her hair change colour randomly. 

“Hello, who’re you? I’m Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell, and that’s Dudley Vernon Dursley, my cousin!” 

Dorea looked amused and curious. “I’m Dorea Melania Potter née Black. It is nice to meet you, though I do not recognise you. Your cousin said you were a Potter. How come your name is Peverell?”

Cynthia looked sheepish. “Well, it’s not the name I was born with. I changed it today due to complicated reasons. My birth name is Harriet Jamila Potter. My parents were Lily Evans and James Potter.” Something suddenly went to the front of her mind. “You’re my aunt’s godmother!”

Dorea looked surprised but pleased. “You’re Harriet? That means that I am your grandmother. But…your aunt’s godmother? I am afraid that you are mistaken. I had three godchildren, two of which are boys. The girl, to my knowledge, died shortly after being born.”

“You mean me?”, Stella suddenly appeared right next to Cynthia. “I am, in fact alive. If you do not believe me, my name is Stella Maeve Dursley née Black, though until today I had thought that my birth name was Petunia Maria Evans. My adopted sister Lily, she married your son. I believe we even met once, at their wedding, Mrs. Potter.”

Dorea looked extremely shocked and almost about to cry. “Stella? You’re little Lala? You’re the Tuney Lily always talked about? The one who always called her a freak for being magical?”

Stella flinched. “Yes, about that…that wasn’t me at all. Well, it was me, but not my character. My real emotions have been blocked by spells and potions. The culprit? Albus Dumbledore. He did the same to H-Cynthia and Dudley, though Dudley and Cynthia had more than me.”

Dorea turned to Cynthia. “And this is true?” Cynthia’s hair had calmed a bit down again as she nodded. “Yes…and it didn't even start around that time. It started even earlier, before Mum and Dad even went to Hogwarts, apparently. It’s a long story, but in short, Aunt Rose and Aunt Elizabeth dying weren’t accidents at all.”

“How would you know that? You’re what? Six years old? And I can’t remember anyone ever talking about Lizzy after she died…”

Cynthia looked sheepish. “That’s a long story, but not one for now. Let’s just say…I’m not as young as you think I am and I know way more than I should.”

Dorea nodded curiously and looked at her granddaughter. “Alright, but what do you mean, it wasn’t an accident? As far as I know, my daughter and daughter-in-law’s twin sister got killed in an accident concerning the Whomping Willow that was planted the year before.”

Cynthia nodded. “That’s partly true, but did you know that Whomping Willows have been made illegal a long time ago?”

Dorea’s eyes widened. “What? They are illegal and Dumbledore still planted one on Hogwarts grounds?” She growled. “I knew there was something weird going on with that man!”

“If you can even call him that”, Cynthia muttered under her breath.

“Yes, and I was told that you and granddad died of Dragon Pox a few weeks before a Death Eater attack that destroyed the Manor. So why are you still listed as alive at an unknown location?”

Dorea looked slightly miffed at that. “I am a portrait. I would most certainly know if my person had died. About Potter Manor there is one thing I can tell you. To my knowledge, there never was a Death Eater attack. There couldn’t have been, unless a direct family member was a Death Eater with the ability to get past the wards.”

“So Potter Manor is still standing?”, Stella asked, her eyes wide. Dorea nodded. Of course, Cynthia thought. Línnea told me that there were wards around preventing a non-Potter from getting past them.

“But where is it?”, Cynthia asked. “I know now that it’s still standing now, and that you are still alive somewhere, but where is Potter Manor?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: I will update every Tuesday from now on, so you can have one new chapter every week!
> 
> And I KNOW, I've probably made her richer than you'd say is possible, but you have to see, that's a fanfiction, I can basically do what I want. I've already made it less than originally intended, but yeah...
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos, comments and all that!
> 
> Love, Sarah


	16. xvi. long time no see, eh?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They continue talking to Dorea and find the portrait of another good soul.

“But where is it?”, Cynthia asked. “I know now that it’s still standing now, and that you are still alive somewhere, but where is Potter Manor?”

“It’s somewhere in Devon, and it’s unplottable, so you wouldn’t find it on a map. But you could take a portkey there…”

“What’s a portkey?”, Stella and Dudley asked at the same time and Cynthia turned to them. “Portkeys are objects that are charmed to teleport about 10 people at the same time to any location that isn’t warded against them. They can go one way, both ways, they can be spelled to go off at a certain time, and more.” She turned back to Dorea. “But portkeys are illegal if made without Ministry permission! And goblins…” Cynthia paused and looked at Griphook, who was still standing there, also quite curious about the conversation since Potter Manor was brought up. “Do goblins sell portkeys?”

Griphook rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Of course they don’t. We can’t even make portkeys because the wizard race decided that goblins shouldn’t be allowed wands.” He growled and Cynthia and Dudley both took a small step back.

“Correct”, Dorea said. “And that is exactly why we have portkeys to the Manor in here.” She smiled.

“You have portkeys to Potter Manor in here? Where?”, Cynthia asked. She and Dudley were looking at Dorea, but Stella thought that it would be good to let them talk to their grandmother, so she turned and walked around, looking at all the other portraits in the vault, before her gaze stopped at one particular portrait. 

“Lily?”, she breathed and the woman in the portrait looked over to see the sister she thought hated her. She had forgiven Petunia a long time ago, though to be honest, she had never even been mad at her. She smiled as she looked at the brunette in front of her, but frowned a second later.

“What are you doing here, Tuney?”, she asked and Stella choked a sob. 

“Lily, you died! You and P- James, you died, and Cyn- Harriet was brought to me”, she choked and Lily looked shocked.

“Ari was brought to you and Vernon? Why? We had a will, and so many people listed on it to take her in in case something happened! We even wrote that she was not to go into your custody, no matter what because, no offence, you hate magic and I thought you wouldn’t treat Ari well, simply because she’s my daughter.”

Stella shook her head. “I don’t hate magic, Lily. I was jealous because you had something I didn’t! But my actions, insults, they weren’t me! I had blocks, spells and compulsions on me, ever since I was born!”

“What? Why would you have those? You’re a muggle. When you were born, nobody even knew of you.”

“I’m not a muggle, Lily. I’m a witch, a pureblooded one at that.”

Lily frowned. “Pureblooded? Petunia, our parents were muggles. And if you were a witch, wouldn’t you have-“ She stopped as realisation set in. “Your magic go blocked, didn't it?” Stella nodded. “But still. You’d be a muggleborn!”

“No, Lily. I’m not and Evans. I wasn’t born as Petunia Maria Evans. Today I found out that my birth name is Stella Maeve Black.”

“Black? As in, Sirius Black?”, Lily asked slowly. 

“He’s my brother and if I read correctly on my Inheritance Test, currently illegally imprisoned.”

Lily looked at Stella sharply. “Could you repeat that? My ears tell me that you just said that Sirius is illegally imprisoned?” 

“That’s true.”

“But why? And that brings me to my original question, why are you here?”, Lily asked and Stella shifted slightly on the spot.

“That’s a bit complicated. It’s because of Cy- Harriet. It’s a very complicated story that even I don’t know all the details of, so please don’t ask questions until she’s here.” Lily looked doubtful but Stella turned around and called, “Cynthia! Come over here, there’s someone who wants to meet you!”

“Cynthia?”, Lily asked. She had noticed the near-slips Stella made while talking about her daughter, but now she was calling Harriet as Cynthia. Something weird is going on, Lily concluded.

“Yes, Aunt Pe- Stella?”, Cynthia said, just having arrived at her aunt’s side before she turned to the portrait. “Mum?”

“Harriet! Or…Cynthia? You’re so big!” That was not exactly true, but compared to when Lily last saw her daughter, Cynthia was quite big. 

Cynthia smiled. “I guess I am…” She looked around. “Is Dad around?”, she asked, but Lily shook her head. “He had his portrait hung up at Potter Manor, but…” 

“Oh, I understand”, Cynthia said.

“Now”, Stella said. “Your mother knows that your story is a complicated one that only you know all the details of, and she has questions about it. Do you want to tell her now, or later when we’ve dealt with Vernon?” 

“I don’t really know. Do we have time to explain it now?”, she asked and Stella glanced down at her watch before gasping. “No, it’s 9 o’clock in the evening already. Vernon will be coming home in an hour.” She turned to Lily apologetically. “We can’t tell you today, but I promise we’ll come back in a few days at the latest, if that’s alright.”

Lily laughed. “That’s alright, but you could shrink the portrait, if you liked, and take me with you.”

“How would that work? We don’t have wands.”

“Oh, you don’t need them for that. You just have to tap your finger on it and say ‘Shrink’. If you want it to go back to normal, you’ll have to tap your finger on it and say ‘Resize’. The thing controlling it isn’t your wand, but your magic in general. So you could do it, but Harriet, or Cynthia, could do it as well.”

They hadn’t noticed that Dudley had followed Cynthia to the portrait shortly after until he spoke. “So I could, too?”

Lily smiled at him. “You must be Pe- Stella’s son. I’m Lily, Ha- Cynthia’s mother. And yes, if you’re a wizard, you could do it as well.”

“Cool!” Dudley beamed. “Can we take grandma Dory, too?”

Lily laughed, Cynthia looked just as excited at the thought as Dudley — never even having seen a photo of her grandmother other than the portrait — and Stella smiled. “Sure we can. But now we’ve got to hurry if we want to make it back home before Vernon comes back.”

But Dudley wasn’t listening anymore. He was already running back to Dorea’s portrait and said enthusiastically, “Can we shrink your portrait and take you home with us? Aunt Lily told us how to do it!”

Dorea laughed at Dudley’s enthusiasm and nodded. “Of course you can, Dudley. Because as soon as you leave the vault, it’s going to be really boring in here. I could talk to the others, but what’s there to talk about? I’d much rather like to hear about what my goddaughter and grandchildren have to tell me.”

Dudley gave a tiny little shriek of delight before putting a finger on the frame and tapping once. “Shrink!”, he said and watched as the portrait became smaller and smaller until it was about as big as both of his hands put together.

“Mum! Cynnie! I did it! I did magic with my own hands!”, he shouted.

“That’s great, Dudley. Come on, we have to hurry”, Stella said as she and Cynthia came around the corner from Lily’s portrait, which Cynthia currently held in her hand. It was just the same size as Dorea’s was now. 

“Griphook?”, Cynthia suddenly asked. They all forgot that he was even there. Griphook raised an eyebrow. “Could we come back tomorrow to have a key made?”

“That won’t be necessary. While you were talking to the portraits, I called a colleague and told her to make one for you.”

“Really? How does that work without you leaving?”

Griphook just looked at her and Cynthia sighed. “Oh…goblin secret I suppose?” Griphook nodded. “That’s alright then. Thanks anyway!”

“Could you please hurry up, Cynthia? We won’t be able to catch the train if we don’t leave now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This is a new chapter, but I've got to say something about December. Next week I'll update as normal one chapter on Tuesday, but after that I'll star publishing a Harry Potter Christmas Calendar, which I have only just started writing yesterday, so I don't know if I'll be able to write a chapter for each week until Christmas because I already have to write 24 chapters (one is done already), so yeah...I hope you understand when I skip one or two weeks before updating this again.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for your nice comment and kudos and everything. I really appreciate it!
> 
> Love, Sarah


	17. xvii. can i worry now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Dursleys and Cynthia get back to Privet Drive.

"Could you please hurry up, Cynthia? We won't be able to catch the train if we don't leave now!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming Aunt Tu- Stella!"

They were silent as they left the vault, but Griphook started talking again after they were in the Entrance Hall of Gringotts.

"Stop here", he said as they stood in front of the front desk before walking behind it and saying something in Gobbledygook to another goblin. The other goblin nodded and walked towards them.

"May your enemies quiver in fear at the sight of you", Cynthia said respectfully and Dudley and Stella copied her. The goblin looked surprised, but answered with the same greeting before pulling something from his pocket. It was a new-looking key.

"This, Heiress Peverell", the goblin said quietly as to make sure nobody can listen in. "Is your new vault key for vault 687. It does only work for that vault. Do not lose it. And do not, under any circumstances, give the key to someone you do not fully trust to run your financial errands."

Cynthia nodded. "I understand. Thank you, Mr..."

"Silveriron", the goblin said. "And it was no trouble, Heiress Peverell. Now, were there any questions?"

Dudley and Stella shook their heads, and Cynthia contemplated it before shaking her head as well. She had initially wanted to ask about the portkeys to Potter Manor, because while talking to Lily and Dorea, they kind of forgot and they couldn't go back now. And talking about Potter Manor in the Entrance Hall right now probably wasn't such a good idea, so Cynthia procrastinated it for now.

"We really must be going now, Silveriron, Griphook", Cynthia said. "It was an honour to do business with you."

The two goblins nodded in response and Griphook said, "Likewise, Heiress Peverell. Today was a really..." His lips quirked slightly upwards. "...unusual day for all of us, I'd say."

Cynthia grinned back as she nodded to both goblins, Dudley and Stella copying her again, before they turned around and left Gringotts.

As they re-entered Diagon Alley, they noticed just how late it already was. And seeing the dark sky also made Dudley realise that he should've gone to bed two hours ago. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

Stella looked down at him and said, "Come on, we'd better get home now, so you can go to bed, Dudley." Dudley looked like he was about to protest, but Stella wouldn't have it. "And don't you dare say you're not tired, young man."

"But Aunt Stella, what are we going to tell Uncle Vernon about me? I mean, how will he react when he sees that Harriet is gone and another girl he doesn't know is suddenly in the house?", Cynthia suddenly worried, but Stella just smiled.

"Don't worry about that, Cynthia. I have an idea for that already."

"Ok", Cynthia said, but she was still nervous. The plan may be good, but there was still no telling that Vernon would buy it.

"Hurry up, Dudley and Cynthia. If we're fast enough, we'll be able to catch the train."

Cynthia stopped, suddenly realising something. "Wait! I've got a better idea. One that's gonna get us home in less than five minutes." Stella raised an eyebrow. "The Knight Bus. It's magical and I could call it right now. Or, I guess we all could."

"And how, may I ask, are we supposed to call that Knight Bus?", Stella asked.

Cynthia rolled her eyes slightly, but answered anyway. "You hold out your wand arm. Like this." She stuck out her left hand and quietly wondered since when her left hand was her wand arm. Probably another thing the blocks and spells changed.

BANG!

Dudley and Stella jumped as the purple triple-decker bus appeared in front of them. The doors opened and an old man stood there, looking at them.

"Hello, this is the Knight Bus for the Stranded Witch or Wizard. My name is Kyle Shunpike and I will be your conductor for this evening."

"Er, yeah...", Cynthia said. "Do you take pounds?"

"Pounds? You mean, muggle money?" Cynthia nodded. "Why of course I do!"

"Great! Uh, we'd have a ride to Number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey, please. And, we'll have to be there as soon as possible."

"No problem", Kyle waved them off. "You'll be there in under five minutes. That makes...2 sickles for people age 17 and older. Children from 11 to 16 pay 1 sickle and everyone younger than that gets a free ride. Sorry, I don't know how much that is in pounds." The man grimaced.

Alright...the exchange rate from pounds to the galleon is five to one, and 17 sickles make one galleon. Five pounds are 500 pence, divided by 17 makes...29 pence, and that multiplied by two...58 pence.

She turned to Stella. "It's 58 pence, Aunt Stella." She concentrated on the last word, because she really couldn't afford to slip up now.

Stella nodded and took out a one pound coin. "That's one pound, 100 pence. So take the 42 pence change as a tip, Mr. Shunpike."

Kyle took the coin and put it in his pocket. "Thanks, Ma'am, will do." He turned around. "One ride to Number 4 Privet Drive as fast as possible, Ernie." He turned back to them. "Best get seats quickly. This bus is a bit...fast, if you will."

Cynthia instantly shuffled to get a seat, having had the experience of riding the Knight Bus before, Stella and Dudley following her.

"Hold on. It's gonna be a really wobbly ride now."

And really, Stella and Dudley barely had time to hold on to the bars at their seats before the bus took off at full speed.

—

"Finally that's over", Stella said as they exited the bus two minutes later. "I'm never doing that again."

Cynthia chuckled. It's really not that ba-" Her smile disappeared as she looked at the driveway. "Oh no..."

"What is it, Cynthia?", Stella asked, looking where her niece was looking.

"Uncle Vernon's home", Cynthia said, staring at the silver car in horror. "But how? It's not even half past 9! He's not supposed to be home yet!"

"Stella looked slightly calmer than Cynthia, and said, "Calm down, Cynthia. It'll be alright. Don't worry, I have a plan as to what to tell him. Vernon being home earlier isn't going to mess that up."

Cynthia nodded nervously, clutching Stella's hand. She knew she was technically older than Stella, but she was a nervous wreck right now, and in such situations she usually clung to the nearest person; as Harriet, that had usually been Ron, but now it was Stella. At least that wasn't influenced by spells, Cynthia thought.

They moved forwards as Stella shook Cynthia's hand off to get her key out of her handbag, but let her clutch at it again a second later. Cynthia got more nervous as they stood just in front of the door, as Stella pushed the key inside the keyhole, and she was nearly hyperventilating as she turned it around in the lock.

It's going to be okay, Cynthia. Calm down, breathe. It's gonna be totally fine, you'll see, she told herself and tried to get a hold of her breathing, which worked semi-well.

The door opened and Stella said, "We're home!"

Not a second later a purple Vernon Dursley stood in front of them, very nearly making Cynthia faint at the memories that this expression made her re-live.

"Where have you been, Petunia?", he asked angrily. "And where's the Freak?"

Cynthia and Stella flinched. "Uh, I was at an orphanage...I didn't expect it to take that long. And Harriet, well, that's why I was there. I took her and Dudley with me and put Harriet up for adoption."

"You put that brat up for adoption?!", Vernon burst out. The he looked at Cynthia, who shook and had a very hard time controlling her hair. "Who's this, then?"

Stella shuffled on the spot. "Well, you know how we've been trying to get a child? I just thought...I thought that if I was already there, I could just adopt one. But as it is, choosing the perfect child was harder than I had anticipated."

Vernon raised an eyebrow and was starting to talk, when Dudley yawned loudly again.

"Let's get Dudley to bed first, Vernon. We can talk after he falls asleep."

Vernon grunted and nodded before stepping out of the doorway to let them in. "Alright. We'll do that first, then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay, I've pre-written this, so yeah...THEY'RE FINALLY FINISHED WITH GRINGOTTS!!! Omg, that took me 10 fucking chapters to get one Gringotts visit done, and yeah...
> 
> This excuse about where Harriet got and where Cynthia came from to Vernon was something I made up in the spur of a moment, so I hope you like that. I think it's reasonable, because Dumbledore made it that they couldn't have any other children after Basilla (fuck, a spoiler, but yeah, she's younger than Dudley) and you'll see her in the future too, though I don't yet know how to introduce her and where she even was.
> 
> So yeah, I hope you liked this chapter and OH!
> 
> THE FIRST CHAPTER OF MY DRAMIONE CHRISTMAS CALENDAR IS UP!!!
> 
> Okay, that's all. 
> 
> Love, Sarah💚


	18. xviii. what made you take her?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stella and Cynthia have a talk with Vernon and they have really much acting to do.

Vernon grunted and nodded before stepping out of the doorway to let them in. "Alright. We'll do that first, then."

Cynthia was a bit sceptical, but entered nonetheless. She may be more forgiving towards Stella, but that's to be expected. Petunia had never physically hurt her, really, but Vernon was different. Vernon regularly beat her up just because he could, and in the rare situations that he came back drunk, he even took off his belt to get a good amount of screaming and blood out of her. Though that only started after Dudley and her got their first report cards back.

But now that Petunia found out that she was actually Stella Cynthia knew that she would never hurt her purposefully or under Vernon's order. That was why she hadn't flinched when Stella had hugged her.

And Dudley...well, she was not completely sure why she didn't flinch when Dudley hugged her. Maybe it was because she was over it and she'd made up with Dudley, so he'd hugged her in her old life already, but maybe it was because Dudley was basically just a six-year-old child and couldn't exactly do any lasting damage, not to mention that Cynthia would have had herself patched up in minutes. And maybe it even was the fact that they weren't alone in the room and Stella and Griphook would've seen if he'd done something.

As they entered, Cynthia's gaze flickered to the cupboard under the stairs for a moment, but she swallowed and averted her eyes, walking forwards and into the living room after Stella, while Vernon put Dudley to bed by lifting him and carrying him to his bedroom like he was a two-year-old. Now that Dudley was off the potions, Cynthia could see the look on Dudley's face that clearly said, 'I'm not a baby anymore!'

Cynthia and Stella looked at each other and Stella sighed. She saw the fear in Cynthia's eyes. She knew that Cynthia had probably not seen her and Vernon in years before coming back in time, but since she'd never hurt her and on top of that had been forced to hate her through potions and spells, it was easier to forgive and forget than with Vernon.

Cynthia slowly walked forward, looking around as if she was curious about how the house looked, but in reality she was just trying to distract herself from what was to come. Sure, she wasn't Harriet Potter anymore, to Vernon she was just a normal six-year-old girl whom his wife had spontaneously adopted while disposing of the Freak at the orphanage. To him, Cynthia was just a normal child, well, as normal as an orphan could be, anyway.

Cynthia was pulled from her thoughts by loud footsteps banging on the staircase and she flinched hard as she turned around with fear in her eyes. Very often that had meant she, as Harriet, had to be disciplined again.

"Now", Vernon grunted as he walked into the living room. "You'll tell me what this girl is about, Petunia."

Stella noticed how Vernon called her by her old full name. He'd only ever called her Pet, so it was a little weird getting used to.

"Well, after I had settled things and signed papers for Harriet to be taking in that orphanage, I thought I could adopt a child...I mean, I was there already, so why not?"

Vernon scoffed. "Why not? Why not come home again and discuss the adoption of a child with me first?"

"Because...because I knew you wouldn't approve of the reasons why I adopted that specific child..."

Vernon only looked at her. "Really? So why did you? Why did you adopt this girl without asking me first and knowing I wouldn't approve?"

Cynthia took a deep breath and spoke up. "Uh...excuse me, Mr. Dursley?"

Vernon looked at the redhead sitting on his couch with her head bowed. She was polite. Unusually so for a six-year-old. "Yes, Miss-" He stopped for the lack of a name to her face.

"My name is Cynthia. And Mrs. Dursley said...she looked at me and said I reminded her of her mother..."

That wasn't what Stella was intending to tell her husband. She had wanted to tell him that she reminded her of Lily, but now that she thought about it, it sounded stupid. She'd always complained about her, so if she hated Lily — as far as Vernon knew — why would she adopt a girl that reminded her of her?

Vernon nodded and looked back at Stella. "And why, pray tell, did you think I would not approve of a child reminding you of my dear mother-in-law?"

Stella shrugged. "I know she did not approve of us...and told you so to your face." She bowed her head. She now knew why.

Vernon raised an eyebrow. "Yes, but...she was still polite to me. She told me specifically that she didn't like me, but would try to be nice for your sake. And that's enough for me to like her."

Stella bowed her head. "And that's not all...she reminded me of my sister. Not Lily, I mean Rose. I told you she died when I was 13 years old..." Stella teared up. "I just recently found out that it wasn't because of a train crash on her way to school. It was...it was...they were walking through the forest with her Nature Club, when the tree fell over. Everyone went out of the way, but she...she didn't notice the tree falling until it was too late. The tree fell straight across her upper body...she died instantly because her organs were crushed."

By now, Stella was openly crying. She'd told Vernon that Rose was Lily's twin and that she died at age 11, but not more than any of that. All Vernon knew was that Rose Marie Evans died in a train crash on the way to school, caused by the drunken driver. And what she told Vernon now wasn't even far from the truth. Much.

Cynthia was shocked by that. She had tears running down her face as well, and she didn't know how Stella had composed this story so fast, even if it wasn't that far from the truth.

Without thinking twice, she moved forward and hugged Stella. "I'm sorry for your sister", she said, knowing that Vernon could hear her and she had to act like the six-year-old orphan she was supposed to be. "I understand...I was told that I used to have a twin sister, but she died because a doctor made a diagnostic mistake."

Stella was secretly impressed by Cynthia's made-up story, but she couldn't bring herself to stop crying either way.

Vernon cleared his throat awkwardly and it was at that moment, they knew they'd won Vernon over as far as the matter of having adopted Cynthia was going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, they're finally at Privet Drive again. So, I told you that, because of my Christmas Calendar, I may not be able to post every Tuesday until Christmas.
> 
> And this still stands. I maybe able to finish another chapter by next Tuesday and the one after that, but I certainly cannot make any promises, especially with 3-5 Class Tests before the holidays.
> 
> But I will try to finish another chapter, so yeah...
> 
> Anyway, that's it for today, and if you're interested in Christmas Calendars, you can look at 'Forgive and Forget' on my Profile.
> 
> Love, Sarah💚


	19. xix. could i see that certificate?

Vernon cleared his throat awkwardly and it was at that moment, they knew they'd won Vernon over as far as the matter of having adopted Cynthia was going.

"Okay, what now? Where will...Cynthia...sleep? In Dudley's playroom there's no space right now, and the cupboard won't do for such a wonderful child", Vernon remarked. It was obvious that if he knew that Cynthia wasn't exactly who she said she was, if he knew about her magic and who she used to be, he'd never call her a wonderful child.

"Well, she could sleep in the guest room. We could fix it up for her while she and Dudley are at school. What do you think, Vernon?"

"No", Vernon said instantly and Cynthia and Stella tensed up. "That's the room for when Marge comes over. We could let her sleep in there for now, and fix up Dudley's playroom for her."

The two females let out the breath they were holding. They both didn't know what they had feared would happen, but the outcome was one they both liked.

But Stella knew she couldn't go on being Petunia to Vernon. She'd have to tell him that she's adopted and just found out today. And another thing was that she really wanted to get to know her mother. She knew that Walburga was still alive, she just didn't know where she lived.

Though Cynthia really wanted to talk to her father's portrait at Potter Manor, she also knew that Walburga Black died in December 1986. And that was barely even five months away. It was said in Cynthia's life as Harriet that Walburga died of a broken heart, since her husband died in 1977, her oldest son 'betrayed the family' in 1971 and ran away in 1976. And to add to that, he youngest and most precious son got died in 1979. And what most didn't know, but Walburga's only daughter and oldest child didn't even survive the birth.

But some people also said that she died of insanity, though that was so unrealistic to Cynthia, the first option was the most likely one. So, if they went to visit her and told her about the situation, maybe she wouldn't die. Or, if she died of an illness, maybe they could prevent it.

And now that Cynthia thought about it, she realised that Dorea was Walburga's younger sister, as she'd seen on the Black tapestry in 1995.

She stood up, feigning a yawn. "Mrs. Dursley? Mr. Dursley, I'm a little tired. Could one of you point me in the direction of the bathroom and...perhaps give me some clothes to sleep in?" She tried to fake a blush with her metamorphmagus abilities, but didn't know if it worked. "I didn't really have much in the orphanage...just that set of clothes, really."

Vernon smiled at her, which made Cynthia's eyes widen for a second as she'd never really seen him smile at anyone before, not even Dudley. "You can call me Vernon, or Dad, if you'd like, Cynthia." He glanced at Stella. "And I'm sure Petunia has nothing against you calling her Tuney or Mum. Right, Pet?"

Stella cleared her throat. "About that..."

Vernon looked at her. "What is it, Pet? Are you not okay with her calling you by your first name, or Mum? She could just call her Mrs. Dursley, that's totally fine."

Stella shook her head. "It's not about that, Vernon. She can of course call me by my first name, or even Mum. But the thing is, my name isn't Petunia and it never was."

Vernon's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I- I'm adopted. I just found out today when I went to adopt Cynthia. I told them my full name plus maiden name and they told me they had documents of me being adopted and getting a name change."

"So what is your name, Mrs. Dursley?", Cynthia asked, trying to look curious and widening her eyes ever so slightly and opening her mouth in curiosity.

Stella smiled and thought, What a girl...I couldn't have done that better. "My name is, in fact, Stella Maeve Black-Dursley, at least as far as my birth certificate goes."

Vernon raised an eyebrow. "Could I see that certificate?"

Stella's and Cynthia's eyes widened simultaneously as Stella frantically started searching her handbag. "I know they gave it to me right before I left. But I don't know where I put it. Maybe here..."

While Vernon was watching Stella, Cynthia was thinking frantically about if she'd manage to wandlessly conjure a copy of the birth certificate, while performing a landless Switching Spell to switch it out with the lipstick Stella always carried in her handbag.

She was getting desperate when she remembered that the block on her magical core was gone now, so everything should be easier now. She just had to make her magic flow through her arm, so that she could hold the certificate in her hand.

She waved her hand behind her back and thought the charm. She concentrated on conjuring the paper and inscribing it with all the necessary information she'd seen on Stella's magical birth certificate. She changed some things up, for example the name of the hospital she was born in and imagined the stamp she'd seen countless times on some of Vernon's documents.

Then, when she felt the paper in her hand, she performed a wandless Switching Spell and a second later she was holding the lipstick in her hand. It was a bit wobbly, but it worked. And all that in less than ten seconds.

"Ah, there, I found it", Stella finally said as she fished the paper from her handbag, throwing a quick glance to Cynthia in thanks as she handed it to Vernon, who studied it intently.

Then he cleared his throat. "Alright, P- Stella", he said when he could find nothing wrong with it. "Now that that seems to be in order, how about I make the bed in the guest room, while you get some of your old pyjamas from when you were younger?"

Stella readily agreed and Cynthia just noticed how tired she really was, now that she didn't have to fake anything else.She stood up and promptly faked just one last thing. She threw herself at Vernon with all her willpower and hugged him around the middle as far as she could reach.

"Thank you, Mr- Vernon", she mumbled, pulling back with a blush that was completely real. "I already thanked Mrs Dur- Stella at the orphanage, but until now I didn't know about what you thought about me..."

Vernon patted her on the shoulder. "Oh, that's alright, Cynthia. So, if you'd like, you can help me with making the guest room ready for you, or you can follow Petu- Stella up to the attic for some nightclothes."

Cynthia beamed at him, and it really wasn't even faked. "I think I'll go with Stella. Thank you again, Vernon! I'm really grateful that you accept me and are okay with Stella having adopted me."

Vernon grinned. "That's no problem. You're a very polite girl, Cynthia. I really took a liking to you after what you and Petunia- er, I mean Stella told me right now. Now go on, the attics up the stairs, then at the end of the hall, turn right and go up that staircase as well."

Cynthia nodded as she tried to keep her emotions at bay as not to lose control of her hair and eye color. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

With that, she turned around and practically sprinted up the stairs to Stella, where she could finally let her emotions loose, making her hair turn color rapidly between the colours of the rainbow. It really was obvious that Cynthia felt a lot of things, and yet didn't know what to feel about the conversation just now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey guys, what do you think? Should they go to Potter Manor first or go visit Walburga at Grimmauld Place?
> 
> So, here's a voting poll for Hermione, Neville, Cynthia and Dudley, because I've had the latter two up on Wattpad and Quotev anyway, and now people told me suggestions about Hermione and Neville as well, so yeah...you can vote here too now. But remember that I will not count your vote twice, you vote and your vote counts once. You vote 10 times for one of them to be a Slytherin? It counts as one vote for that person. 
> 
> So, here it is:
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 16
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 11
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley:
> 
> Slytherin: 1
> 
> Hufflepuff: 8
> 
> Ravenclaw: 1
> 
> Gryffindor: 0 
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 3
> 
> Hufflepuff: 0
> 
> Gryffindor: 0
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0 
> 
> Ravenclaw: 0 
> 
> Hufflepuff: 3
> 
> Gryffindor: 0
> 
> ***
> 
> That was it for this week, so yeah...
> 
> Love, Sarah💚


	20. xx. what were his motives?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cynthia thinks about things and talks to Línnea, somehow

With that, she turned around and practically sprinted up the stairs to Stella, where she could finally let her emotions loose, making her hair turn color rapidly between the colours of the rainbow. It really was obvious that Cynthia felt a lot of things, and yet didn't know what to feel about the conversation just now.

—

An hour later Cynthia lay in the guest room bed and thought about what had happened today. For her, it was kind of almost too much to get into her head, and she was technically 36 right now.

Recap. She died. A 12-year-old muggleborn Hufflepuff killed her in her own DADA lesson while her back was turned. How the hell? Why would he hate her so much? The first week wasn't even over, and that boy had just turned 12 two days before. He was muggleborn, he didn't know anything about her other than that she was Harriet Potter-Weasley and she's the Girl-Who-Lived.

Then she woke up in the beyond and told Tom Riddle all about his failure and why it failed. And then, why was he in his 16-year-old body? She just remembered that detail, but it was weird. His body was completely corrupted and he was 72 years old when he died. She shook her head. It probably had something to do with his first horcrux having been created when he was 16.

But then Línnea came into play. Death's daughter told her all about Dumbledore's lies and that she used to have two more aunts who died on Hogwarts grounds before reaching age 12. But she didn't tell her about Petunia actually being Stella Black. What was that about? And why did she get compulsions and spells on her? The prophecy didn't even exist in 1958. And besides, why would he choose Stella? And why did he bring her to the Evans family of all places? Why not...another family? Why specifically the Evans? Was there even a reason or was it pure coincidence? Cynthia shook her head yet again. No. Albus Dumbledore didn't play with coincidence. He played with facts and speculations, but not with coincidences.

And then the thing that Dudley and Cynthia had spells on them even before Voldemort attacked them. He must've known what would happen, otherwise he wouldn't have put spells on them. He wouldn't have put them on if he wasn't absolutely sure the Potters would die.

And after it happened, after her parents died, Hagrid was there minutes later. Sure, Sirius and Snape were as well, but that made sense. Snape probably felt it from his mark that something happened, and Sirius was Cynthia's godfather, James' practically-twin and Lily's best friend. He knew something was wrong. And besides, wouldn't it be weird to suddenly be able to remember where they live?

But Hagrid. He didn't have a motive other than that Dumbledore told him to get little baby Harriet to her aunt and uncle. But how did Dumbledore know that James and Lily were dead? It all just didn't make any sense.

And didn't Dumbledore have her father's cloak until she was 11? Why did he have it? They could've brought themselves to safety if only they had the cloak.

Everytime Cynthia went through her thoughts, more things about Dumbledore's motives didn't make any sense. And all the thinking made Cynthia so tired that she fell asleep minutes later, promising herself to talk to Lily and Dorea about it the next day if she got the opportunity to do it.

—

"I see you have questions, Harriet. Or should I call you Cynthia from now on?"

Cynthia opened her eyes and looked directly into Línnea's. "Línnea! What are you doing here? No, what am I doing here? Did I die? How? I just went to bed and fell asleep?" She stopped talking and looked at Línnea's amused expression, narrowing her eyes. "I didn't die, did I?"

Línnea nodded. "You got it, Cynthia. You didn't die. This is basically your dream, but it's real."

Cynthia nodded in understanding. "Why are you here?"

"Because I know you have questions, and I intend to answer the ones I can."

"Awesome. So...why would a 12-year-old muggleborn want to kill me? It doesn't make any sense, he didn't even know anything about me other than my name and my useless titles."

Línnea looked sheepish. "The first question and I can't answer it. There could be so many reasons for what Michael did, but I don't know which one it is."

Cynthia nodded. She had kind of already expected that. "That's great and all, but why Aunt Stella?"

Línnea looked startled as that seemingly random question was thrown at her. "What do you mean?"

"Why Stella? I know she's Stella Black, and not Petunia Evans, but why? Why did Dumbledore take her from Walburga in 1958 and put her with the Evans? The prophecy didn't exist then and even if it did, it wouldn't explain why Dumblewhore took Stella and put her to be my mother's sister. It all had to have a reason. Why did he do it? What are his motives? And why did he put spells on Dudley and me before my parents died? He wouldn't have done it if he hadn't known they'd die and I'd survive. I know that. And how did he know to send Hagrid to pick me up minutes or even seconds after my parents died? He couldn't have known unless he knew it would happen. Snape knew because of his Mark, and Sirius because he's my godfather and my parents' best friend. And if you could suddenly remember the location of my parents. Sure, Dumblewhore could've noticed that too, but that still doesn't explain why he knew my parents had died and I survived. It just doesn't make any sense, 'Nea!"

Línnea smirked at Cynthia as the latter girl panted after ranting without taking a breath. "Well, Cynthia, I would explain, but you'd have to stop talking for a second." Cynthia blushed. "Anyway..." Línnea blushed and looked down sheepishly. "I forgot the first question."

Cynthia laughed slightly and repeated her question about why it was Stella and all that.

"Ah, yes...how could I forget? He's a time traveller, like you."

Cynthia was shocked. "Wait...could you repeat that? I thought I heard you say that Dumblewhore is a time traveller."

Línnea grimaced. "And you heard correctly."

"So he went back in time from 1996 to...some other year?"

"It's not quite as complicated as that, Cynthia, don't worry. He just travelled back from 1981 to 1955 because when your parents died, and Sirius was said to be the Secret Keeper, Remus a werewolf and Peter dead, you had nowhere to go. So he went back to make sure your mother had a sister to send you to."

"But Stella was born in 1958, why did he go back all the way to '55?"

Línnea shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it was planned, maybe it was just a random year shortly before your mother was born, I seriously cannot answer that. But about that question: Dumblewhore put a tracker on Tommy to know when It happened, and when he needed to send Hagrid to Godric's Hollow. Because, despite him being Albus Dumbledore, and despite him having done and thought of everything, he hadn't thought to remember the time the Potters died."

"Oh...so, that answers the next questions...he knew they'd die, so he put spells on me and Dudley to ensure everything goes as he's planned it. And he could send Hagrid because, obviously, he knew my parents had died." Suddenly, Cynthia jumped. "That reminds me: Sirius! Something has to be done! He's been in Azkaban for four and a half years now, he has to get out of there! But how do we do that? He needs a trial, but that wouldn't go over well with anyone if a six-year-old just shows up and says that the 'most dangerous' murderer didn't get a trial and needed justice!"

Línnea facepalmed. How in her father's name could she forget that? She's Death's daughter, she's not supposed to forget anything!

A thought entered her mind. "Didn't he give you the memory of what happened that night when he confronted Pettigrew? Sometime after Arthur Weasley was attacked, I believe?"

Cynthia groaned and facepalmed. "How could I forget? Of course he did! But how're we gonna send it to the Ministry? And how are we going to extract the memory in the first place? I don't have a wand- wait, I may be able to do it wandlessly. But where are we going to get phials from? And still, how do we send them? We don't have an owl! And if we go to Diagon Alley and send it through the post office, the clerk might recognise us and give our descriptions to the Ministry, should they ask."

Línnea sighed and started rubbing her temples. This was going to be a long night. "The phials you can easily get from a toy store. Just buy a Children's Chemistry Set and you'll have like 5 phials or more. And bout the owl and sending the memories...I really don't know. You could always make yourself look different, and put a landless glamour on Stella to make yourself and her look like an unassuming man and his son or something, sending a package to their wife and mother, and nobody would bat an eyelash."

"Línnea, you're a genius!", Cynthia said happily. She heard a faint ringing noise and groaned, knowing that to be Stella's old alarm clock. "Will I be able to talk to you every time I go to sleep?"

"No, unfortunately not. I will come if you have questions you wouldn't be able to get the answers for without me, but other than that...no, I won't come. I can't come. Sorry."

A second later, Cynthia woke up and Línnea was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey, it's a new chapter guys. So, I've had people asking why he out Stella up for adoption when he shouldn't even be having a reason for it, and this is it. He travelled back in time. I don't even know why I did that, but it just seemed logical and a pretty Dumblewhore thing to do. Time Travel to make his plan work. 
> 
> Anyway, here's the house poll.
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 20
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 13
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley / Dudley Michael Evans:
> 
> Slytherin: 1
> 
> Hufflepuff: 13
> 
> Ravenclaw: 1
> 
> Gryffindor: 0
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 7
> 
> Hufflepuff: 0
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 0
> 
> Hufflepuff: 9
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> So you see, there's still a chance for, say, Hermione to get into Gryffindor, even if that's 6 votes behind. Heck, she could even still become a Slytherin with all I know, since I don't know how long it'll take for me to finish the time before Hogwarts (I mean, 10 chapters for a 6-hour-visit to Gringotts?), but yeah...we'll see. If I get questions, I will try to answer them in a chapter or something. If I don't, well then, that's a plot hole, I guess. 
> 
> And there's still so much to do before Hogwarts, as someone on here pointed out to me! It's gonna take so long to finish that. But I have time. I have time for that, guys.
> 
> So, since in two/three days is Christmas (depending on where you live), I have planned for another chapter on one of those days, just to wish you a happy Christmas.
> 
> Love, Sarah💚
> 
> PS: Also, check out my Dramione Christmas Calendar if you'd like. I know the Christmas Calendar is almost over, but it's not like I'm going to delete it in a few days. It'll stay up, and you can read it all you like.


	21. xxi. is this all a prank?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amelia Bones suddenly gets a huge unexpected job.

A second later, Cynthia woke up and Línnea was gone.

—

It was now two days later and the only thing they had gotten done with was buying the Children's Chemistry set from the local toy store. They had also retrieved the memories from Cynthia's mind, which thankfully worked without a wand.

Now they had to get to Diagon Alley to send off the memories to the Ministry of Magic.

—

"Good morning, Sir. What can I do for you and your son?", the clerk at the Post Office asked smiling. Stella, aka Samuel, smiled back. "We just came by to send a package to my wife. She is on a trip for work and it is our anniversary today, so we wanted to send her a gift. Isn't that right, Cay?"

Cynthia, aka Cayden, nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! Mummy loves sweets, so I put soooo many sugar quills in there!" She made an exaggerated move with her arms as she beamed at the man with her now short brown hair and bright blue eyes.

The clerk chuckled. "Well then, let's choose an owl that is extra fast. We wouldn't want the sugar quills to arrive too late, would we, young man?"

Cynthia nodded, still beaming as she followed the clerk to the back, clutching the package in her tiny hands.

"But, sir, she works a very secret job. Her boss only reluctantly let us know the exact address. Do you have owls that fly so that they can't be followed or tracked?", Stella asked just as Cynthia had instructed her to.

The clerk's face seemed to split his face. "Oh, of course, sir, certainly. Just follow me and I will gladly show you the untraceable owls. But that would be a bit more pricey, if you understand."

Stella waved her hand. "That's no problem. But I would just hate to have someone track my wife's working place because of an anniversary gift."

Cynthia instantly noticed the sign saying 'Untraceable Owls' and she ran forward until she came to a beautiful barn owl the started hooting as soon as it saw her.

"Hey...", she stopped, not knowing the gender of the owl, but she smiled nonetheless. "This has to go to-" She lowered her voice and leaned to the owl's ear. "-Madam Amelia Bones in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Please be as fast as you can, but don't smash the phials." The owl looked offended that someone would consider the possibility of the phials getting smashed.

"I'm finished, Daddy!", Cynthia said loudly, pulling the two adults from their conversation.

"That's great, Cayden. Have you told the owl the address?" Cynthia nodded and Stella smiled. "Good. Then let's go, we have to pick up your brother from Paul's house."

Dudley was at Piers' house, but any use of real names could blow their cover, so they used fake names everywhere.

***in the Ministry of Magic***

Amelia Bones was bored. She had completed all her work and filled out every single form or paper that was on her desk. Now she had nothing to do.

Minister Bagnold had given her all the work she could, but there was simply no work to be done. She briefly considered just going home, when she heard pecking at the window. She looked to see a barn owl with a package bound to its leg flying just outside it.

Sighing, she stood up and walked to the window to let the owl in. At least now she had something to do, whatever it was.

Something was written on the package.

From: Anonymous

To: Madam Amelia Bones,

Head of the DMLE,

Ministry of Magic

A package from an anonymous source. She checked it thoroughly to see if there were any curses on it, only to come up empty.

It was safe to open, which was exactly what she did next. In the package there was nothing more than two phials with a milky substance she noticed to be memories.

There was also a small note.

Madam Bones,

these memories could, should you watch them, uncover the truth about someone wrongfully imprisoned for the worst accusations — without a fair trial.

Anonymous.

She glanced at the Pensive in the corner of her office and back to the phials, before shaking her head, taking the phials and promptly deciding to watch the memories. The worst that could happen it that this was just a stupid prank, and the best would be a wrongfully imprisoned person getting out of Azkaban.

—

Sirius stood, holding baby Harry in his arms protectively, as Hagrid tried to convince him to let Harry go to the Dursley's.

"No! I am his sworn godfather! I swore when Harry was born that, should anything happen to Lily and James, I would take care of him."

"But I have Professor Dumbledore's orders, Sirius."

Something in Sirius' demeanour changed. Gone was the protective stance and the glare, and suddenly there was a mad glint in Sirius' eyes as he gave Harry to Hagrid and even offered the half giant his flying bike.

Something fishy is going on there, Amelia knew that instantly.

"Take my bike, Hagrid. I won't need it anymore. I have to catch a rat."

—

The next memory was one that Amelia was really curious about. She had just graduated a few months before that happened, so she didn't get to know anything about the case of Sirius Black.

"Peter, you betrayed them!", Sirius said, and the plump man stopped, looking at Sirius and sending him a malicious smirk.

"That I did...," he whispered. "But no one will know. You were the decoy, everyone will think you did it."

Sirius' expression changed into one of shock as he whipped out his wand.

"Sirius, how could you?!", Peter yelled. "How could you, you betrayed Lily and James!"

Amelia was nearly petrified as she watched the next scenes unfold.

Peter whipping out his wand and casting a Bombarda Maxima.

Sirius managing to cast a weak Protego at the last second.

Peter cutting off his own finger and transforming into a rat before disappearing into the sewers.

The Aurors showing up and sentencing Sirius without even looking at his wand history.

Then the memory ended and Amelia knew that this would turn out to be probably the most interesting day she'd ever had in the five years she'd worked at the Ministry now.

"Linda!", she called her secretary. "If Bartemius Crouch isn't in my office in ten minutes, I will castrate him!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Yay, I updated again! I literally wrote that just now, but yeah...this is them sending the memories to the Ministry and Amelia watching the memories. Which means...*drumrolls please* SIRIUS IS ALMOST FREE!
> 
> Yeah, anyway, here's the house poll:
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 24
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 14
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley:
> 
> Slytherin: 1
> 
> Hufflepuff: 18
> 
> Ravenclaw: 2
> 
> Gryffindor: 0
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 12
> 
> Hufflepuff: 0
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0 
> 
> Ravenclaw: 0
> 
> Hufflepuff: 13
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> This was all for now, and I'll see you next week!
> 
> Love, Sarah


	22. xxii. what to do next?

"Linda!", she called her secretary. "If Bartemius Crouch isn't in my office in ten minutes, I will castrate him!"

And five minutes hadn't even passed when Crouch came running into her office, cheeks red from sprinting all the way to the office.

"You wanted to see me, Amelia?", he asked extremely out of breath. Amelia didn't even bat an eye.

"That's Madam Bones for you, Crouch. Would you care to get me Sirius Black's trial script?"

Barty paled as he searched his mind for some way out. Sirius Black hadn't gotten a trial. Why would he have, when he was so obviously guilty? "Uh...Am- Madam Bones, I-"

"Save it, Crouch," she sighed. "He didn't get a trial, did he? You didn't even look at his wand to see if he fired the curse."

"So? He is guilty, I don't see what I did wrong. There were witnesses-"

"Witnesses?", Amelia asked in disbelief. "Do you perhaps mean the twelve witnesses that were killed?"

Barty nodded nervously. Amelia pinched her nose and sighed. "Barty...Sirius Black is innocent."

"No! He can't be! Pettigrew is dead, Black exploded the street. We only found Pettigrew's finger-"

"His finger! Only his finger! No body parts? How is it that twelve muggles were killed and you had their whole bodies, even if severely mauled, but only one finger for Peter Pettigrew?"

"I- I don't know. Black- he could've- Amelia, there's no chance he's innocent!"

"Oh yeah? And what is that in the Pensive behind me? I don't know who sent them, or how they got those memories, but I sure know how to identify tampered-with memories. And those...they're original. They aren't tampered with. They go from minutes after the Potters died to the moment you took Black from the scene."

—

"What did you do?!", one man in a grey robe at a newly instated Unspeakable, who cowered under the glare.

"N-nothing! I was just walking through the Hall of Prophecies earlier to see if there were any new ones like you told me to, when one of then shattered!"

"The first man stood, with a confused expression on his face. "What? That has never happened before. Prophecies always come true. Which one was it?"

"The one Sybill C. Trelawney spoke to Albus Dumbledore in March 1980."

"Who did it speak about?", the first man asked, already dreading the answer.

"The Dark Lord and Harriet Potter."

—

"Now, what do we do next?", Stella asked that afternoon. "We've done a lot already, but it's still not even quarter of what we have to do."

Cynthia thought for a second. They still had to do a lot, that was where Stella was right. They had to find Pettigrew, but this still had time. She knew Pettigrew never did much, and since they now had the memories sent to the Ministry, it would probably still take a few weeks until the trial of Sirius.

Then they really had to get Stella a wand and magic books to train her up, and that without Dumbledore knowing. That would have to happen really soon, but they could do that together with getting the will of Cynthia's parents and getting the goblins to check the wards of 4 Privet Drive and most likely removing them.

Then there was still the problem of Dorea, Lily and James. They could explain everything to the former two at any time, but they'd actually need to go to Potter Manor to talk to James.

And they also had to find out where the living version of Dorea, and Regulus were right now. They knew they were alive, but they didn't know where. They could be anywhere, and Dorea's portrait didn't know much either, at least from what Cynthia, Dudley and Stella understood.

Then Walburga...Cynthia knew that in her life as Harriet Potter, Walburga died in December 1986, so they needed to go to Grimmauld Place fast, but it wasn't as urgent as dismantling the tracker stuff Dumblewhore had in his office. They tracked her every movement- no, they tracked Harriet Potter's every move. The movement of Harriet Potter who still had all the blocks and potions on herself.

This had to be done first unless they wanted Dumblewhore to know Harriet was gone. It was just to check on his precious Girl-Who-Lived, who wouldn't have been the Girl-Who-Lived if Voldemort had chosen Neville.

Wait- Neville! Neville was so horrible at magic until fifth year. That was because he didn't get to have his own wand. But why not? Augusta must have known the importance of having a wand that truly belonged to you. Maybe Dumbledore had his hands in there somewhere as well. Especially when they were talking about how Neville had talked about his childhood without accidental magic and how his family mistreated him, trying to make his magic come out.

There really had to be something fishy going on, and Cynthia was sure that Dumbledore was the reason.

But that could wait as well. It couldn't wait too long, but it wasn't that urgent. What really was urgent was the blood ward tracker.

"We have to dismantle or at least change the function of the blood ward trackers in Dumblewhore's office." Dudley was at Piers' house, so Cynthia got away with that kind of language. "But how do we- am I still an animagus after coming back here?"

"What's an animagus? And how do you plan to get into Dumbledore's office without getting seen? You may be small, H- Cynthia, but a six-year-old girl at Hogwarts can't be that unnoticeable. Especially now in summer break with all the portraits watching and reporting anything unusual to Dumbledore."

Cynthia nodded. "Yeah, I know. That's why I won't just walk in. At least I plan not to. An animagus is someone who can transform into their inner animal at will. And if I'm still one, I can easily get into his office without being noticed."

Stella looked at Cynthia with a raised eyebrow. "And what if you're not an any-whatever-it's-called anymore?"

"It's animagus. And if I'm not one, then...then..." Cynthia sighed. "We'll cross the bridge when we get there."

Stella shook her head and sighed, but nodded in the end. "Alright, then. Let's see if you're still an any-something."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay, this was more like a filler chapter, because I didn't know what else to write, so yeah...I basically just busted all their plans right now oop- but yeah, I don't care right now. 
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 25
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 14
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley:
> 
> Slytherin: 1
> 
> Hufflepuff: 19
> 
> Ravenclaw: 2
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 0 
> 
> Ravenclaw: 13
> 
> Hufflepuff: 0
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 0 
> 
> Hufflepuff: 15
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Yeah, this chapter is crap, but how did you like it?
> 
> Love, Sarah


	23. xxiii. is someone coming?

Stella shook her head and sighed, but nodded in the end. "Alright, then. Let's see if you're still an any-something."

**—**

It was revealed that Cynthia was indeed still an animagus. At least she thought so. She didn't know what being a metamorphmagus entailed, so it could either be an animagus or simply an ability that her ability to change her appearance brought with it. She really had to research on that topic, though for now she had to work on getting into Dumblewhore's office undetected, which shouldn't be too hard.

"It may take a while for me to get back here. If Vernon comes and I'm not back yet, which is a very likely possibility, tell him I went to visit a friend from the Orphanage and I'd be back tomorrow."

Stella nodded and Cynthia quickly transformed into her animagus form. When she found out what her animagus form was just three years after graduating Hogwarts, they all wondered why. Sure, she'd been awesome in combat, but that was mostly just knowing and being able to use spells and luck. Everything else she graduated with an E at best. So she was smart, but in her opinion and the opinion of countless others, not smart enough to have that smart of an animal as her animagus form.

But now she knew. You could force down potions and cast spells and compulsions and put blocks on a person all you like, but they wouldn't be able to influence your inner animal. And the Eurasian Eagle Owl was Cynthia's inner animal, whether her intelligence had been stumped by spells and blocks or not.

She looked at Stella with her huge green eyes. Owls could have green eyes, but there wasn't a known case of one with dark emerald green eyes like Cynthia's. Stella stared wide-eyed as Cynthia bobbed her tiny owl head once before flying towards the window and...promptly flying against the closed window, forgetting that she hadn't opened it.

Stell could only laugh as Cynthia transformed back, opened the window and transformed back before flying out the window, this time without flying against the glass.

The journey was a long one. She might be an Eagle Owl, a species that could travel 50 miles per hour, but she now was in her six-year-old body, thus had a smaller wingspread than fully grown owls, so she was slower than the average Eagle Owl. And seeing as she was in Surrey, not far from London, and Hogwarts was far up north, all the way in Scotland, it was indeed a long journey.

While she flew, she thought about what she could do after the trinkets were disabled and tampered-with.

**—**

As Cynthia approached Dumbledore's office from the outside, she looked through the window and was satisfied to see it empty. At least for now. And the portraits...well, she'd have to be careful not to wake them.

Fortunately, the window was open, making it easy for Cynthia to fly inside and position herself under the table to transform back to her human form. She crawled out and stood up, looking around carefully for any sign of others. When she found none, she turned to where she knew the trinkets to be, having seen them in her past life often enough, not knowing what they were and how they had ruined her life. Not that there was that much more to ruin, anyway.

She slowly walked towards them, trying to figure out how to tamper with them. Only then she realised she didn't have a wand and cursed. Why didn't she realise that earlier? She sighed; she'd have to do it either wandlessly or not at all.

Or...Cynthia abruptly turned on her heel and walked towards the Headmaster's desk and opened one of the drawers. Nothing. She looked further and in every single drawer until she came to one that she couldn't open. Tutting, she noticed that a simple Alohomora got rid of that problem. Her eyes lit up as she looked at the contents in the drawer.

A time-turner without any time sand (she suspected that was the piece the so-called Leader of the Light had used to travel back to the 1950s), a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (why he needed to lock that book up was beyond her), and two wands. The first one she knew to be Dumbledore's original wand. As far as Cynthia knew, her old Headmaster had only ever fought with the Elder Wand. And the other one...it looked like someone cut of a tight but long piece of bark from a tree, but left some really short wooden pieces sticking out. She had only ever seen it in her school books.

This was Gellert Grindelwald's wand.

Slowly, Cynthia let out the breath she was holding and whistled quietly. Suddenly, she heard a noise from behind her and she turned wide-eyed. What was that noise? She wondered if someone was coming. No, the noise came from the trinkets.

"Oh shit...", Cynthia mumbled as she quickly took hold of Dumbledore's wand and made her way to the trinkets. She had to act fast, seeing as she knew that Dumbledore wasn't dumb enough not to put spells on them to alert him of any changes.

She quickly mumbled every Spell Reversing spell she knew, before they finally stopped ringing and making weird noises. She pulled a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she continued casting whispered and wordless spells. She didn't know as many as she thought, she noted. Being the Defense Professor at Hogwarts and ex-Auror as well as war heroine and Saviour of the Wizarding World, one would expect her to know every single spell there was, or at least the most effective and light ones, but it was less than she'd anticipated.

But fortunately she knew just enough to dismantle most of the wards and spells around the trinkets before casting spells to ensure that they would only tell him that Harriet Potter had only left her home for a quick visit to the store. She also made it so that the trinkets would only show that and turn up empty after that. They wouldn't show where Harriet Potter was, what she was doing, or whether she was even alive and well. Dumbledore would never find out what had happened to his precious Girl-Who-Lived. Well, he would, but that he would only moments before his inevitable death. And Cynthia knew it was inevitable, seeing as he'd either die of old age or by her hand. Smirking, she predicted the latter to be the case.

She cast the last spell, to ensure that no tampering would show up at any Detection Spells Dumbledore would most likely use, before letting out a breath and walking back to the desk. She once again looked around. The portraits were still sound asleep. Except for one.

"What do we have here? A small five-year-old doing in the Headmaster's office of a school she isn't even old enough to attend yet?", a voice said from the portrait wall and Cynthia held her breath as she read the inscription beneath the portrait.

Phineas Nigellus Black

Headmaster of Hogwarts

1890-1925

"I-", Cynthia started, but Phineas held up his hand to stop her.

"But first tell me your name and how you even got in here?"

Cynthia turned red as she searched for answers.

"And no lies; I know you are looking for something to use to get out of this, but no can do." He smirked. "But I'll tell you what, lass. I won't tell anyone what you're doing."

Cynthia was sceptical. She was willing to accept a vow, but Phineas wasn't the only portrait in the office. But then she had an idea.

"I understand you have a portrait at Grimmauld Place?", she asked after placing a Muffliato around her and him, so that even if they tried, they wouldn't be able to hear her. She should have done that from the beginning.

Phineas reared back and narrowed his eyes at the girl. "How do you know that?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay, this is one of my longer chapters again, so first of all, a happy new year to all of you! I hope this year has been kind to you SO FAR and if so, I hope it'll keep being kind. I really forgot to mention it last week, so I'm saying it now😂
> 
> Anyway, so Cynthia's animagus is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. They're the smartest owl species and yeah. Some things, like the thing that they can't have green eyes or such are googled, but the speed was something I couldn't find, so I was stealing the fast possible speed Snowy Owls could go and took that. And she might've been faster if she was a fully grown Owl, but since her body's one six years old now, her animagus form is accordingly small as well.
> 
> Oh, and here is your house poll again.
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 27
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 18 
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley:
> 
> Slytherin: 1
> 
> Hufflepuff: 22
> 
> Ravenclaw: 2
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 16
> 
> Hufflepuff: 0
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 0 
> 
> Hufflepuff: 16
> 
> Gryffindor: 3
> 
> Have fun voting!
> 
> Love, Sarah💚


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking with Phineas and flying through England

Phineas reared back and narrowed his eyes at the girl. "How do you know that?"

Now it was Cynthia's turn to smirk. "I'll tell you...the day after tomorrow. At Grimmauld Place. On one condition."

The old man merely raised an eyebrow at the seemingly small child in front of him. "And what may that be?", he asked.

"You will swear on your magic that you will not tell anyone — not even Dumbledore — of this conversation. It didn't happen. As far as everyone is aware, I was never here." Her gaze hardened. "If anyone hears of this, I will personally destroy your portrait to the point where it's less than ash."

Phineas didn't know why, but for some unknown reason, he knew she meant what she said. He was curious about that girl. She couldn't be older than six, that was something he was certain about, which made her statement even scarier. He couldn't swear on his life, because obviously he was already dead, but if he swore on his magic and he broke his promise, the magic in his portrait would go away, making is a non-magical portrait.

"Fine. I, Phineas Nigellus Black, swear on my soul and magic that I will not tell anyone, not even Albus Dumbledore, of this conversation. So I say, so mote it be." The portrait lighted up in a golden colour before going back to normal.

"Happy now, girl?"

Cynthia kept the flinch at the mention of Vernon's nickname for her inside, and instead grinned and nodded. "Very. I'll see you at Grimmauld in two days time then." She disabled the Muffliato, put Dumbledore's wand back into the drawer after deleting the last spells cast so that it wouldn't be suspicious, transformed into her owl form and swooshed out of the window.

On the way back home she was tired. The journey was a long one, and the sleepiness she was feeling at the moment didn't help at all. She had been flying for the past few hours and the sun was already beginning to set, but Cynthia was simply too tired to fly all the way home now.

So she swooped down from the sky and looked for a porch that looked promising. She didn't know where she was, but she assumed that it was somewhere in or near London. She looked around for a place for her to sleep in her form, when a house sprang to her eye. She would recognise it anywhere, no matter the situation.

Hermione's house.

That meant she was in Crawley. About an hour away from London, and half an hour from Surrey. If you went by car.

She hesitated. Should she go through the window of Hermione's room? Or should she just stay outside and sleep on the porch or in a tree? But outside it wasn't warm, and she didn't want to catch a cold, so she finally decided to swoop into Hermione's room. The girl wouldn't know her anyway.

—

Hermione Granger was only six years old, and yet she was brilliant. She could already do stuff the ten-year-olds only learnt in school now, and she had a talent. An unusual one, but a talent nonetheless.

She could make things do what she wanted. If she wanted a book that was too high on her bookshelf, she'd just think about holding it in her hand and it'd be like an invisible force pushed the book out of the bookcase from behind. If a plate fell, she'd just think about it not shattering and it either floated a few inches above the floor or it just bounced off it like a rubber ball.

She didn't know how this was possible, but she didn't care either way. She loved her talent and she knew that there was people like her, but not how many.

Right now she was sitting in her bed reading, surprise, a book. She should have been sleeping already, considering it was already well past 9 in the evening, but she just lost track of the time after dinner and got so engrossed in her book that she almost didn't notice the knock on her window.

When she finally did, though, she jumped and looked towards it. An owl was flying just outside it. Hermione's whole face lit up. She absolutely loved owls! They were some of her favourite animals, but despite knowing how they looked, she never got to see one in real life.

She jumped out of bed and ran towards the window, which she practically threw open. "Come here, Owley Owley. I won't hurt you, I promise."

The owl that was Cynthia Peverell hesitantly flew in and positioned herself on Hermione's purple armchair.

"You must be really thirsty, hungry and tired, right, Owley? I'll be back in a minute!"

And she raced down the stairs and into the kitchen to get a bowl of water and some bread. She made to go back up again when she saw her mother, Emma Granger, standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing up, Hermione? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

Hermione blushed. "Well, I was reading-"

"Of course you were", Emma said good-natured.

"-and then there was that knocking sound on my window and now there's an owl in my room. She's hungry, thirsty and tired. Pleaaaaase can we keep her? At least until tomorrow when she's not tired anymore?"

Emma sighed as she ran her hand over her face. If Hermione had put an idea into her head, there was no way she could get rid of that. "Fine. But only until tomorrow. Is that clear?" The six-year-old nodded excitedly. "Good. Now come on, we'll feed that owl and then you'll go to sleep, alright, sweetie?"

Hermione yawned. "Alright, Mummy."

Needless to say, with an owl-loving six-year-old and her mother, Cynthia had a very relaxing night. She admitted to herself that she'd never slept so well in her entire life.

The last thought on her mind was if Dumbledore noticed anything out of place when he got into his office. She was sure she's put everything back to its place and made no mistake, but she was no pro at this, and even the best make mistakes at times, so she obviously couldn't be sure.

But if she did everything correctly and without any mistakes, she knew that Dumbledore would have a very hard time finding his precious saviour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay, I know, I'm pretty late, but I managed to complete it early enough. I'm proud of myself! Anyway, this chapter was very fun to write and Cynthia even got to see Hermione. Even if it was only in owl form and Hermione didn't know who the owl in her room really was. 
> 
> And Phineas...hm, how do you think he'll react when he finds out who the small child in the Headmaster's office really was?
> 
> I don't know if I'll publish another chapter next Tuesday because of four things:
> 
> 1\. It's my birthday next Tuesday
> 
> 2\. I have online class till 1pm
> 
> 3\. I have a doctor's appointment on that day (yes, on my birthday, and it sucks)
> 
> 4\. I'm currently writing a Cedric Diggory fanfic called 'Shining Love' and planning to complete it by sometime next week
> 
> So if there's no chapter, don't be surprised because here's the reasons, but I promise I'll try to get one done.
> 
> And here is once again the poll!
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 33
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 19
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley:
> 
> Slytherin: 1
> 
> Hufflepuff: 25
> 
> Ravenclaw: 3
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 2
> 
> Ravenclaw: 18
> 
> Hufflepuff: 0
> 
> Gryffindor: 1
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 0
> 
> Hufflepuff: 17
> 
> Gryffindor: 3
> 
> Love, Sarah


	25. xxv. you know about that?

But if she did everything correctly and without any mistakes, she knew that Dumbledore would have a very hard time finding his precious saviour.

**—**

The next evening, Cynthia lay in bed, thinking about the next day. Her and Stella were going to go to Grimmauld Place. Dudley was going to be sent to Piers for the day, because Cynthia didn't really think it was appropriate to bring a six-year-old into such a cursed and doxy-infested house. Not to mention that Walburga would probably scream her head off, and Kreacher wouldn't take a second to start insulting them.

Not a good environment to bring Dudley too.

Cynthia and Stella had made themselves a bit of a lazy day. They still cooked and stuff, but they didn't act out on any of their plans, because nothing was really that urgent. But Cynthia still struggled with thinking about what to say to Phineas and Walburga. She'd never really encountered Phineas, Walburga she had only met on not-so-pleasant terms, and Sirius never talked about anyone of his family, other than Andromeda and occasionally Narcissa, good.

She looked at the wall and saw something out of the corner of her eye. The bookshelf that stood right next to the spot she was looking at. And on the bookshelf stood two portraits.

Cynthia jumped up as she ran towards the shelf, took both portraits and plopped herself back on the bed.

"How could I forget that?", she asked herself.

"Oh, sweetie, it's fine. We could tell you had a lot to do in the last few days, you needed a break. Now, what's it you wanted to talk about?", Lily said.

"Uh...I think I should probably start with why I know so much about your Hogwarts years...when I wasn't even born. And how Aunt Stella found everything out and stuff."

Lily raised an eyebrow and gestured for her daughter to continue, while Dorea looked interested as well.

"So, um...I don't know where to start, honestly", Cynthia admitted quietly. And she really didn't. There just happened to much in her life as Harriet and then she died, met Línnea and came back to her six-year-old body to change everything.

And change it she did.

"You should probably start at the beginning, Ar- Cynthia", Dorea said with a kind smile that made Cynthia automatically smile back.

"Okay, sooo...the beginning. What is the beginning? There's been so much going on in the past centuries, I have totally lost track of everything that's happened."

Dorea and Lily looked at Cynthia incredulously. "Centuries?"

Cynthia's eyes widened a bit. She didn't want to start there. She fucked up by blurted out the truth to Stella before any of them were ready, she wasn't going to do it again. "Uh...I'm getting there. I think I'll just start with Halloween because that's the earliest memory I have."

Lily teared up while Dorea gasped loudly. "No! Not that day!"

Cynthia nodded glumly. "The earliest I remember that day was Dad conjuring colourful bubbles with his wand. Mum- Mum was sitting on the couch, reading a book and watching us. Then there was a knock on the door and Dad went to get it. He- he left his wand there on the couch...he probably thought it would be Sirius or Remus, or even Peter, but it was Voldemort." The two women flinched, Lily harder, remembering what happened, but they didn't interrupt.

"Then he yelled, "Lily, take Ari and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off-!" And then he just- he just dropped." By now Cynthia was already crying, and Lily and Dorea too couldn't keep in the tears. "Upstairs, Mum put me in my crib and told me how much she and Dad love me...and then Voldemort came and told her to step aside. If she had just stood aside, he'd have spared her. But she didn't, so he killed her. He just killed her and then moved on to me.

"At that point, it all went so fast, but I looked at him and his face somehow changed into one of shock and fear. But it was gone in a millisecond and he just threw that curse at me like it was nothing to just shoot the Killing Curse at a 15-month old baby. And it hurt like hell, I'm telling you. People say the Killing Curse is painless, but it isn't actually. If I had died at that moment, it would've been a painful death. And how are people even able to tell if the Killing Curse hurts?" Cynthia shook her head as more tears spilled out of her eyes. "Anyway, a few minutes later, Severus came." She looked at Lily. "You know, Severus Snape. He came, and didn't take one look at me before dropping to the floor next to you and crying.

"You know, it was actually him who told Voldemort that prophecy about me-"

"You know about that?!", Lily asked while Dorea wanted to know what prophecy they were talking about. The two dead women had talked a lot in the last five years Lily had her portrait made, but not once has the prophecy come up in any of their conversations.

Cynthia nodded. "Yeah...Gran, the prophecy we're talking about was made a few months before I was born. It went like this, at least I think it did.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark her as his equal, but she will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the girl with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies."

"So, as I said, I think it went like this. At least that's what I was told. It could be a fake and the real one is completely different, but yeah...Severus overheard the first two lines and told Voldemort about it. To him, it could've been either me or Neville."

"Neville? Neville Longbottom? I didn't know that!", Lily threw in.

Cynthia snorted slightly. "Probably Dumblewhore's doing...anyway, we're getting off-track. Yes, Neville Longbottom. But for some reason, I don't even know why, Voldemort chose me. He decided that I would be a threat to him. Probably because half-bloods are the most powerful."

Lily and Dorea looked at her incredulously. "What do you mean, half-bloods are the most powerful?"

Cynthia shrugged. "I mean, look at Dumbledore. He's powerful, and a half-blood. Look at Severus, he's powerful, and a half-blood. Look at Merlin, he was the most powerful wizard of all times, and he was a half-blood." Cynthia didn't know where she got the last bit of information because she surely didn't learn about it in school and the library didn't have anything on that. Maybe a small reference that most would've skipped? Probably her photographic memory kicking in. "And then, look at Voldemort. You can't deny he's powerful, and he's also a half-blood."

"You-Know-Who is a half-blood?!", the two women asked.

Cynthia nodded seriously. "Yes. His mother was a witch, Merope Gaunt. She had magic, but not enough to get into Hogwarts, so she was disowned. She married a muggle called Tom Riddle after dosing him with love potions. And when she was pregnant, she thought he'd have to stay because of the baby, and maybe he'd even love her even without the potion. But when she stopped using the potions and they wore off, Tom instantly left Merope with the unborn baby. She died while giving birth in an orphanage and named him Tom Marvolo Riddle. He's Voldemort. 'I am Lord Voldemort' is just an anagram of his real name."

The two still looked at their daughter and granddaughter respectively in complete shock as to how she knew that and that it was fact in general.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Yayyyy here I am with a new chapter. And I'm VERY late. But yeah...this is Chapter 25, finally. And yeah I know you all probably know that story, butI'm still gonna have Cynthia explain is in detail, because I'll probably put in some MORE details when we get to her Hogwarts years and stuff after that as Harriet, because I know you want to know what happened before the time travel *winks*.
> 
> So there's gonna be a few more chapters explaining the stuff before that Michael Smythe guy killed Harriet before Cynthia and Stella are going to Grimmauld Place to talk to Phineas.
> 
> So yeah, anyway, I think it's time for the Hogwarts House Poll:
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 38
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 21
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley:
> 
> Slytherin: 2
> 
> Hufflepuff: 26
> 
> Ravenclaw: 3
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 2
> 
> Ravenclaw: 20
> 
> Hufflepuff: 0
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 0
> 
> Hufflepuff: 21
> 
> Gryffindor: 3
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter, and if you did, don't forget to vote and review. Oh, and I haven't said it yet, but please don't be silent readers! I absolutely LOVE to read your comments and reactions to certain things.
> 
> Love, Sarah💚


	26. xxvi. how dare that man?

The two still looked at their daughter and granddaughter respectively in complete shock as to how she knew that and that it was fact in general.

The next two hours went on with Cynthia explaining about how Sirius came and how and why he was brought to Azkaban. And what happened when Hagrid left with her, and how she was just left on Stella and Vernon's doorstep on a cold Halloween night in nothing more than a romper suit and a thin blanket. And then she took the letter Stella gave her from the inside of her beside table, carefully disillusioned so that Vernon wouldn't see her having it and read it to them. To say they were shocked at what Dumbledore wrote in that letter was an understatement.

"How dare that man?!", the two shouted in unison, and Cynthia was happy about the fact that she remembered to put a Muffliato on the guest room, because that way, she didn't have to tell Lily and Dorea to be quiet. "He practically told them to hate you!"

"I know, I know", Cynthia said. "And that's not all. He put compulsions on it. He added compulsions to ensure that Aunt Stella and Uncle Vernon really did what he was expecting them to do."

"But that makes it even worse!", Lily said.

"I know, but we can't really change that now, can we?" Cynthia cleared her throat. "Anyway, let's get on. The first five years were horrible. I lived in a cupboard under the stairs, barely got fed, and had to do all the chores since I could walk. And not only that, if I did something wrong, Vernon would punch me and give me a beating afterwards."

"That- that-", Dorea and Lily said, clenching their fists in their frames. "Can I please kill him?"

Cynthia looked at them meaningfully. "First, you can't, because you're paintings, and second-"

"But I'm still alive! We just don't know where!", Dorea said.

Cynthia looked at her. "And second, Vernon currently loves me, because he doesn't know who and what I really am. I know, that doesn't make it better, but at least he's not doing anything wrong right now."

"But-"

"Do I have to silence you, Gran?", Cynthia asked sweetly and Dorea shut up, even though she wasn't sure how her six-year-old granddaughter planned on doing that. "Thank you. So, anyway, when I was six, I started primary school because Uncle Vernon didn't want to pay for my education for as long as possible. So, at school I was safe from him at least. But Dudley and his friends would always chase me and beat me up-"

"But Dudley seems like such a sweet boy," Lily said. "And second, you just turned six a few days ago, so you didn't start primary school yet." One look from Cynthia and Lily was silent. "Yeah, I get it. No talking until the whole story is done, sweetie."

Lily knew that there was so much more to the story, so she didn't say anything, but Dorea couldn't help herself. "But Lily has a point. It doesn't make sense. Nothing of this does. Can you please just say what it is?"

Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Do you want to hear the whole story or just the complete end?" Dorea shut up. "Thought so."

Cynthia moved in her bed to get more comfortable before starting to talk once more. "So, as I said, Dudley and his friends would beat me up at school. But one day, I was maybe 8 or 9 years old- don't talk. I'm not finished yet. Okay, so I was about that age, and they were chasing me across the grounds again. So I was going to jump and hide behind some bins, but suddenly I was sitting on the roof of the kitchen."

Lily and Dorea smiled. "Accidental apparition? That's impressive for an 8-year-old." They now just pretended someone else was telling them their life story.

"Yes...well, anyway, nobody believed me when I said I only wanted to hide behind the bins." Suddenly, Cynthia's eyes widened as a memory engulfed her. "Nobody, except one teacher. He was my favourite teacher and like, the only one who really liked me. His name was Matthew Vector, and he's somehow related to Professor Vector, I think." She shrugged. "So anyway, he told me all about magic when he told me to stay behind at recess the next day, since I didn't know anything about magic existing. But then...Dumbledore showed up and erased that memory of Mr. Vector telling me about magic."

"Then how do you remember?", Lily asked.

Cynthia hesitated. "I was going to say I'm getting to that, but it's actually something you kinda already halfway know. It's because, when Stella, Dudley and I were at Gringotts, we cleansed ourself of any spells, blocks and anything we had in our body. That's why I remember. The cleansing broke all the Memory Charms that were performed on me."

Lily growled, but nodded. "Okay, but remind me to find a way out of this stupid frame. I want to kill him."

Cynthia lifted her arms and Dorea gave her daughter-in-law a warning look. "Well, Mum, you're dead, but yes, I will gladly remind you when I'm finished telling my life story."

Dorea gave Lily one last look, though she looked like she was inches away from losing her cool, and looked back at Cynthia. "Go on, Cynthia. You were going to tell us about how Dumbledore removed your memory of Mr. Vector telling you about magic?"

Cynthia nodded. "Yes, but after that, nothing really interesting happens until a few weeks before my 11th- oh wait, there's something else. But why would he-" Cynthia shook her head. "Nevermind. Anyway, so when I was 10 or something, a man approached me at the park. He talked to me, told me who he was and all about you two and Dad, and Sirius and Pettigrew and everything. Well, he didn't know that Sirius was actually innocent, but he told me all he knew."

"Who was it?", Dorea asked and even Lily looked curious, even though they both knew who it was.

"It was Moony." At Dorea's look, she elaborated. "Remus Lupin. So, he told me everything and I was so fascinated and I told him about how Aunt Stella, Vernon and Dudley treated me, so he promised to come back and get me out of there. But..."

"Let me guess," Lily said, groaning internally. "Dumbledore showed up and removed your memories?"

Cynthia nodded. "He did. He removed everything from mine and his minds, except the fact that some guy came up to me, told me he knew my parents, and promised to get me away from the Dursley's."

Lily and Dorea gasped. "He made you think someone promised to help you but didn't?! That's horrible! Did you remember that it was Remus?"

"No. I only knew it was a friend of my parents. His name, or his appearance..." Cynthia shook her head. "Dumbledore removed everything."

Lily's eyes watered and Dorea looked about to break out of her frame right then and there to kill Dumbledore, before remembering that she couldn't.

"Now. Let's get to the exciting parts!", Cynthia said, clapping her hands together, now with a smile on her face. "Dudley's 11th birthday!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey so here's a new chapter (finally lmao) and yeah...I had fun writing this, especially the parts about Mr. Vector and Remus, though I also nearly cried writing about Dumbles erasing it all. So, but the next one will be an exciting chapter! It'll be all about what happened right from Dudley's 11th birthday all the way to the moment before she saw the Weasley's on platform 9 3/4. Dunno yet how long it's gonna be but idc. 
> 
> And if you have any questions about Harriet's Hogwarts years (not Cynthia because Cynthia and Harriet are completely different people in my mind), then ask them here and I'll note them down for future reference. 
> 
> Now, once again, the house poll! It's gotten a lot more votes since the last chapter but here it is:
> 
> Harriet Jamila Potter / Cynthia Sarah Lily Peverell:
> 
> Slytherin: 44
> 
> Hufflepuff: 1
> 
> Ravenclaw: 22
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Dudley Vernon Dursley:
> 
> Slytherin: 2
> 
> Hufflepuff: 27
> 
> Ravenclaw: 4
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Hermione Jean Granger:
> 
> Slytherin: 3
> 
> Ravenclaw: 21
> 
> Hufflepuff:
> 
> Gryffindor: 2
> 
> Neville Frank Longbottom:
> 
> Slytherin: 0
> 
> Ravenclaw: 1
> 
> Hufflepuff: 21
> 
> Gryffindor: 4
> 
> Um yeah, so anyway, this is chapter 26 and I hope you enjoyed reading!
> 
> Please vote and comment as I enjoy reading every single comment (it's actually hilarious reading your reactions to things), so yeah...
> 
> Love, Sarah💚


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